What the LNP will do about the CFMEU if it wins the election

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has vowed to overhaul the CFMEU through a productivity commission as its second order of business behind crime, if elected in October.

The Opposition has declared it will overhaul the CFMEU through a productivity commission and work with the Labor federal government on placing the union into administration, if elected in October.

It comes as the state government this week vowed to crack down on CFMEU-linked bad behaviour following an alleged attack on a non-union worker at his Logan home, with Premier Steven Miles saying it had spoken to the “culture within the construction industry”.

The federal government, through Senator Murray Watt on Friday put the CFMEU construction and general national office and Queensland, Victorian, New South Wales and South Australian branches on notice, giving the union until August 12 to consent to administration, after the Fair Work Commission found it was no longer effectively operating.

Mr Watt said he will be working on legislation over the coming week that will enforce administrators on the union and will table it to parliament at the next sitting if the union does not agree to the administration terms set out by General Manager of the Fair Work Commission Murray Furlong.

Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Murray Watt speaking to the media in Brisbane an announcing plans to have branches of the CFMEU de-registered Brisbane Friday 2nd August 2024 Picture David Clark

The application for administration filed to the Federal Court by Mr Furlong, if successful, would see 270 CFMEU office staff fired, the seizure of branch finances and assets, and the administrator taking controlling a majority vote in each branch.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the LNP would not obstruct any federal efforts to place the militant union under administration, but announced an LNP-led state government would put its own “blowtorch” on the CFMEU through a productivity commission.

“It’s job will be to put the microscope over the building industry,” he said.

“The blowtorch will be put on, when I say the union, I’m talking about the CFMEU.”

Mr Crisafulli said the bad behaviour by the union had been allowed to flourish under the Labor government and vowed to make the productivity commission the LNPs second order of business behind the party’s crime plan come October.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace assured Queenslanders at a press conference on Friday that she would alter industrial relations law to ensure administration efforts made by the federal government could be imposed on the Queensland branch.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Jarrod Bleijie and Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli at Queensland Parliament House. Picture: Richard Walker

But Opposition Deputy Leader Jarrod Bleijie said Ms Grace has held the ability to tighten laws independently from the federal government for a decade.

“For over a decade, right of entry permit holders have been taken before the courts,” he said.

“I’ve been raising these issues in parliament, to the crime and corruption commission, and to Grace Grace for over ten years. The bullying, threats, and violence on construction sites have been constant.

“For Steven Miles to all of a sudden now say in the last 24 hours, because of one incident that he’s now awakened to the fact that CFMEU is a militant bullying intimidatory thuggish organisation, is just beggars belief.”

Mr Bleijie blamed the government for allowing the CFMEU to continue gaining control over the construction industry when by abolishing the building and construction compliance branch and the 24-hour entry permit provision introduced under former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

He pledged to make the LNP’s productivity commission terms of reference broad enough to “delve very deeply down into the CFMEU”.