Malcolm Turnbull’s attack on unions backfired, says CFMEU
AS the government considers amendments to its construction industry bill, the CFMEU has claimed Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity drop is a direct result of ‘union bashing’.
National
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THE CFMEU has seized on polling to continue its campaign against a construction industry watchdog, claiming Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity decline is a direct result of union “bashing”.
At the same time Prime Minister and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash started a press conference in Sydney focused on its Australian Building and Construction Commission Bill, the union released a statement which said Mr Turnbull’s “attack on unions” had “backfired”.
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“The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union believes the latest Newspoll, which shows Labor ahead of the Government 51-49 two-party preferred, suggests the Government’s focus on unions rather than key election issues was a self-inflicted disaster,” the statement said.
CFMEU national secretary Michael O’Connor said the government was distracted “trying to shore up its own political future”.
Last week the union claimed the PM was happy for workers to die to increase the profits of big businesses.
It comes as a Newspoll published by The Australian today shows the Opposition leading the Coalition for the first time since Mr Turnbull took over as Prime Minister.
The poll, taken Thursday to Sunday, shows the Australian Labor Party ahead 51 per cent to 49 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
Parliament will meet on April 18 to resume debate on the ABCC legislation, which aims to reinstate the watchdog scrapped by Labor.
Mr Turnbull has warned should the Bill fail to pass, during the special sitting, he would call a double dissolution election.
The government needs six out of eight crossbench senators to support the Bill, with both Labor and the Greens vowing to oppose it.
Mr Turnbull refused to comment on the poll, once again telling reporters he would leave political commentary to the media.
He said he had not met with any of the senators recently, but had spoken to all of them “at length” in the past.
“I have spoken to (Senator) Bob Day directly but Michaelia Cash is the Minister and she is handling the negotiations as you would expect,” he said.
Senator Cash said several amendments to the ABCC Bill had to date been put forward by crossbench senators.
“I now have a number of amendments that have been given to me by the crossbench,” she said.
“I am considering all of them as a package to see how some may impact on others.
“What we have made clear is to get any amendment up, we need no less than six crossbenches to support it.
“So I would hope that the crossbenches are doing their own homework in relation to their amendments.”
Originally published as Malcolm Turnbull’s attack on unions backfired, says CFMEU
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