ACTU should embrace union inquiry, not shun it

THE squeaky wheels of the trundling tumbrils are getting closer for Labor and the trade union movement.

The mounting evidence of systemic corruption among some officials in the building industry, following evidence of the same sort of corrupt abuse of power by officials in the transport and health services union, and the ongoing investigation into the AWU fraud scandal, make a royal commission into union activities inevitable. The now well-publicised links between some union bosses and outlaw bikie gangs should be enough to convince the most rusted-on Labor supporter of the need to shine a cleansing light into the murky world of standover men, branch stacking and kickbacks. But while Prime Minister Tony Abbott and senior ministers are still demurring and taking a softly, softly approach, senior Labor figures, almost all of them former union officials or associated with trade union blocs, are crying foul. Their line is simple - let the law prevail, let due process occur. Curiously, that logic didn't apply when it suited Labor to prosecute a spurious case against former governor-general Peter Hollingsworth, the former Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, driving him from office. And nor was the principle invoked when pressure mounted to set up the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Sure, there are laws against union corruption, but during Labor's six-year term the penalties for corrupt behaviour were weakened. Under Labor, the authoritative Australian Building and Construction Commission set up by the Howard government in 2005 in the wake of the Cole Royal Commission was first neutered, then abolished. Labor's problem was that it was too effective. After its establishment, days lost in the industry dropped from 120,000 in 2005 to just 7000 in 2007. Now, Labor figures are lining up before the ABC microphones to state their objections to much-needed scrutiny of the trade union sector. Ignoring the evidence of the success delivered by the Cole Commission, former Labor ministers including Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, Anthony Albanese, Brendan O'Connor, Simon Crean and Martin Ferguson reject the case for an inquiry. O'Connor, one of the ministers who set up the royal commission into child sex abuse, says he is sceptical of any proposal for a royal commission. "My view has always been that where there are problems or allegations of crime, then they should be investigated," he said. He didn't explain why allegations of criminal activities by union figures were not worthy of the same examination he felt allegations of child sexual abuse merited. ACTU president Ged Kearney says a royal commission would be a colossal waste of taxpayers' money for cynical political purposes. She paints the threat of a commission as a political attack on workers' rights, a mistaken priority. But she made no mention of the estimated $6 billion annual cost to the nation of the endemic union corruption in the construction industry, nor did she express much angst for those who have been intimidated and bashed by members of the unions. Another opponent is Victorian MP Richard Marles, the former trade minister, who questions the cost of an inquiry and value of any outcome. Marles may actually be able to assist a commission since he appears to have intimate knowledge of how the union movement and Labor Party scratch each other's backs. Before he entered parliament, Marles and David Feeney and Stephen Conroy were all TWU officials. They were members of a group set up in 1995 called Transport 2020, which proposed "to pay the membership subscriptions to any trade union and the ALP of the members". That aim was deleted after being advised by the Registrar of Incorporated Associations that it potentially breached legislation applying to associations in that it secured a profit to members by paying their fees. Marles might be able to explain to the public why Transport 2020 needed to pay for ALP memberships, where its funds came from, how they were spent, and whether union funds found their way into branch stacking or political activities on behalf of the ALP. Just as it took brave whistle-blowers to go public with allegations of child sexual abuse, it has taken extraordinary men and women to speak out against trade union corruption. They have been vilified and demonised, just as those brave men and women who fought against Communist control of the trade unions in the '50s were hounded and victimised. It is courageous individuals like them, people who value truth, honesty and transparency, that union leaders like Kearney should be encouraging and defending, not those with the most to lose through an open inquiry.