Scott Morrison considers Royal Commission into power companies, theatens to deregister CFMEU
UNION firebrand John Setka has apologised for using his children in an explicit social media attack after Scott Morrison threatened to take the extreme step of deregistering the CFMEU.
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UNION firebrand John Setka has apologised for using his children in an explicit social media attack on the Australian Building and Construction Commission after Prime Minister Scott Morrison threatened to take the extreme step of deregistering the CFMEU.
The Prime Minister slammed Mr Setka’s tweet - which showed a photo of his children holding a sign that said “GO GET FU#KED” above a line criticising the union watchdog - this morning as one of the “ugliest things” he had ever seen.
He also warned the CFMEU it could face deregistration over a string of misconduct found in more than a hundred cases over the past 15 years - an extreme penalty last used against a union in 1983.
Mr Morrison had likened the tweet — a photo of Setka’s son Johnny and daughter Kate holding a sign with an explicit attack on the ABCC and Commissioner Stephen McBurney — to Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf posting photos of his nine-year-old son holding a severed head on social media.
At midday, Mr Setka apologised for the tweet and deleted it.
“Mea Culpa. Was emotional on Father’s Day after tough year on family. Shouldn’t have included kids. Now deleted,” he said on Twitter.
The sign had said: “Message to McBurney and the ABCC: Leave our dads alone and catch the real criminals you cowards.”
Mea Culpa. Was emotional on Father’s Day after tough year on family. Shouldn’t have included kids. Now deleted.
— John Setka (@CFMEUJohnSetka) September 3, 2018
PM’S THREAT TO CFMEU
SCOTT Morrison will consider deregistering the militant CFMEU for misconduct and thuggish behaviour as he declared union boss John Setka’s use of his children in a protest campaign one of the “ugliest things” he’s ever seen.
In his first major interview as Prime Minister, Mr Morrison told Sydney radio 2GB this morning he would consider the extreme step, which hasn’t been taken against a union since 1983, after being asked about the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union being hit with $15.6 million worth of fines for unlawful behaviour in more than a hundred cases over 15 years.
He also condemned Victorian CFMEU boss John Setka for using his son Johnny and daughter Kate in his explicit attack on the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
Asked this morning if he would consider deregistering the CFMEU, Mr Morrison told 2GB: “Of course I would. I’ll be discussing that with Kelly O’Dwyer, who is my new minister for Industrial Relations.”
“The CFMEU has behaved under John Setka like a bunch of thugs. And to involve his children in that (photo) is one of the ugliest things I’ve seen,” Mr Morrison said.
“When you see children being used in these sorts of protests — and we saw it in those horrific things in relation to terrorism and things — this stuff just makes your skin crawl.”
Opposition leader Bill Shorten today said he did not condone Mr Setka’s tweet but questioned the Prime Minister’s strong response to it.
“Are we really now running government by the Prime Minister wanting to vet the tweets of other people,” he said.
“In all seriousness, I’d like to see Prime Minister Morrison more worried about energy prices than he is about tweets by union officials.”
Mr Shorten would not be drawn on whether Labor backed a royal commission into the energy sector but said if one was held it would need to include an investigation of whether privatisation played a part in power price hikes.
The Prime Minister called on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to cut all ties with Mr Setka and the CFMEU.
“You’re known by who you stand next to,” he said.
“Bill Shorten has got his arms all around John Setka and John Setka has got his arms all around Bill Shorten.
“Bill Shorten is union bred, union fed and union led.”
The last union to be deregistered for unlawful behaviour was the Builders’ Labourers Federation in the 1980s.
Last month, the CFMEU was hit with penalties of $577,000 for breaches of the Fair Work Act and it was warned by a Federal Court judge, Justice John Logan, that it could not expect to keep its registration if it continued “systematic unlawful conduct”.
“When the BLF was a separate, federally registered industrial association, a past lengthy history of unlawful conduct led ultimately to its deregistration by Parliament,’’ he said.
“Amalgamation and the concentration of unlawful conduct in the (CFMEU’s) construction division undoubtedly makes the subject of deregistration more complex but an organisation which manifests an inability by its internal governance to rein in aberrant behaviour cannot expect to remain registered in its existing form.’’
Mr Albanese also labelled Mr Setka’s tweet “inappropriate” but he said the government did not highlight enough the role of unions in keeping workers safe on construction sites.
He brushed off Mr Morrison’s threat to deregister the union, saying the government should maintain some perspective over a simple tweet.
SCOMO OPEN TO ROYAL COMMISSION
A ROYAL Commission to investigate Australia’s energy sector amid years of power price hikes is on the cards with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying today he will consider one.
“I’m open to it and I’ll look at it,” the Prime Minister told Melbourne radio station 3AW this morning.
The declaration is significant step for the new leader, who resisted launching the banking royal commission as Malcolm Turnbull’s Treasurer and who was also catapulted into the top job after conservatives within the Liberal Party openly protested that Mr Turnbull’s energy policy did not go far enough to drive down power prices.
Asked this morning if he thought the power companies were as bad as the banks, Mr Morrison said: “I do.”
He said he would not launch a royal commission into the energy sector “at this point” but he was “open” to holding one.
“As Treasurer on the banking royal commission, what I focused on first was I wanted to fix the problem - I knew there was a problem with accountability, I knew there was a problem with competition, I knew there was a problem with behaviour of boards and all of that.”
“I set about doing the things I needed to do to fix that.
“But where I failed was to properly understand the real pain people have been feeling about being treated so badly.”
Mr Morrison said he regretted not launching the royal commission earlier because he now realised Australians needed to work through their “deep hurt” from the financial sector’s misconduct.
The Prime Minister said he was now putting the energy companies on notice, threatening to implement the “big stick” approach heralded during the dying days of Mr Turnbull’s leadership.
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese wouldn’t be drawn on whether Labor would back a royal commission into the energy sector when asked on Sky News today.
He blasted the government inaction on Australia’s energy crisis instead, saying the electricity companies had contributed to the problem but the Coalition’s lack of an energy policy was also to blame.
Mr Morrison would also said he did not think it was necessary to withdraw Australia from the Paris Agreement on climate change in his interview this morning although denied he was a “climate warrior”.
The Prime Minister was also asked by Sydney shock jock Alan Jones if a progressive sexual education program being taught in schools — that reportedly asked teenagers to role play as characters with multiple sexual partners or as characters questioning their sexuality — “made his skin crawl”.
“It does, Alan,” Mr Morrison — an evangelical Christian — said.
“It’s not happening in the school I send my kids to and that’s one of the reasons I send them there. They’re in an independent Baptist school.”
Mr Morrison reiterated his commitment to maintaining independent schools right to the religious freedom to teach values they hold.
“I don’t want the values of others being imposed on my children in my school,” he said.
“I don’t think that should be happening in a public school or a private school.
“That’s why I want to protect the religious freedoms of independent schools to ensure they can continue on at least providing that choice.”
He said public schools should “focus on things like learning maths, learning science” rather than sexual education role playing programs.
Originally published as Scott Morrison considers Royal Commission into power companies, theatens to deregister CFMEU
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