Gillard kills union watchdog

The Gillard government has been working hard to destroy every reform that made Australia prosper under the Howard government.Now it is killing off the Australian Building and Construction Commission.The ABCC was formed following a Royal Commission which found widespread corruption among construction unions.

When the Commission was established, unions were holding the construction industry to ransom but that was soon remedied with unions being brought to heel. Today, the Gillard Labor-Green-Independent government is restoring the unions' power to strangle the construction industry. Among the many pieces of legislation being rammed through the Senate with no discussion is a bill to abolish the ABCC. This makes a mockery of the parliamentary process, it illustrates the hollowness of Labor's claim to run a transparent government and demolishes Green claims to ethical behaviour. In a savage attack on democratic practise, the Gillard Labor-Green-Independent Alliance rammed 13 pieces of legislation through the Senate without a single word of debate Tuesday. The Opposition leader in the Senate, Senator Eric Abetz said the government effectively denied the Australian public any scrutiny or accountability. "Labor and the Greens have once again combined to deny the Australian people the right to proper Parliamentary process by forcing Labor’s legislative agenda through the Parliament without a single word of debate," he said. The bill abolishing the ABCC was among the pieces of legislation rushed through in what will probably be the last sitting week for the year. The ABCC was of enormous benefit to the nation. When the unions were constrained by the ABCC, productivity increased by 10 per cent, with an annual economic welfare gain of $5.5 billion dollars per year; the knock-on effect reduced inflation by 1.2 per cent, increased GDP by 1.5 per cent. The number of working days lost annually per 1,000 employees in the construction industry fell from 224 in 2004 to 24 in 2006. At the same time, building costs have fell by 20-25% and long project delays were dramatically reduced. “Labor’s plan is just another prong in their attempt to ensure they secure union funding for the next election,” Senator Abetz said. “The biggest safeguard for workers in the industry and to stop illegality, violence and thuggery is the ABCC and Labor want to scrap it.” Gillard is no stranger to the trade union movement, she was a cheer leader for the historically corrupt waterside workers union when it fought overdue reforms which the Howard government was brave enough to introduce. It is no secret that waterfront productivity increased beyond levels the waterside workers claimed were achievable - after the reforms took hold. Gillard was on the wrong side of history then and she is on the wrong side of history now.