Victorians have had enough. We and our grandchildren will be paying the price for decades after those responsible have long left office

The CFMEU has been dictating the terms to the state government for years. The union’s influence over the Andrews/Allan government must now be fully exposed.

Let’s be quite clear. The biggest victims of the CFMEU’s relationship with the Victorian government have been we, the public.

Because of that relationship, the subservience of government, the pressure exerted on building projects big and small, we the public have been saddled with generational debt.

So great is the debt and the interest payments on that debt, that there is a rapid decline in the quality of services we can expect governments to provide – hospitals, roads, education and law and order services. In the long term, this is a debt the Labor Party and the CFMEU has foisted on our grandchildren, and their children.

Weak, compromised Labor governments, have surrendered their commission to govern to the stronger CFMEU. The public interest has never been Labor’s top priority. It has always been about self-interest.

We the public have been saddled with generational debt thanks to the CFMEU’s relationship with the Victorian government. Picture: Ian Currie

Never has the damage rendered by a government on its community been so economically and socially devastating long term.

The issue is much bigger than the conduct of the CFMEU. It’s up and down the east coast of Australia. It is now about corruption in governments, particularly the Victorian government.

The public interest will not be served by the prime minister appointing a judge, who was a Labor Party candidate and has represented the trade unions in many court cases, being appointed to “clean up the CFMEU”.

Justice must not only be done but be seen to be done.

Labor governments have surrendered their commission to govern to the stronger CFMEU. Picture: AFP

Appointing one of your own and limiting the inquiry into the CFMEU does not pass any pub test.

We have seen it before in Victoria. For the hotel quarantine inquiry, government ministers got away with apparent losses of memory, even though more than 800 Victorians lost their lives from ministerial favouritism and failures,

The Victorian government is corrupt. It has been for years. The CFMEU is just the latest ingredient to be exposed. The CFMEU’s influence over the Andrews/Allan government must now be fully exposed, because we, the public, are the true victims.

The activities of the CFMEU appear to have influenced governments in at least three, maybe four states. There must be a federally-appointed royal commission.

To ensure its independence, there must be bipartisanship in selecting the royal commissioners and in the determining of the commission’s terms of reference. The terms of reference must be wide enough to call any person, including, where warranted, politicians and any and all material required to establish the truth.

Anything less is a sham and whitewash.

In the event that the Prime Minister will not establish a royal commission in which we can all have confidence, I hope the federal opposition will agree to do so if elected at the next federal election.

It would be a pity if we have to wait that long. The prime minister can start the process now. If not, the next election will not only be about the “economy stupid”, but the CFMEU and corruption in government, particularly here in Victoria.

The CFMEU’s influence over the Andrews/Allan government must now be fully exposed. Picture: David Geraghty

The prime minister cannot put the Labor Party’s interests above the interests of the public.

We need to have confidence in our democratic system. Clearly, in Victoria, the CFMEU has been dictating the terms to the state government for years.

Why should the community of Mildura which, because of the government’s failures through the debt created by the demands of the CFMEU, risk seeing the closure of their emergency department at the Mildura hospital? Why should the locals have to travel 400 kilometres for medical help!? Which hospital will be next?

Why is the Government blindly and irresponsibly continuing to build the Suburban Rail Link, signing contracts for billions of dollars, for a project for which no business case has been made public, when the services the government should be providing are in decline?

The CFMEU, of course!

Justice Stephen Rothman is not the appropriate person to be heading up this limited inquiry into the operations of the CFMEU, which should also be about the influence of the CFMEU on governments and corruption within governments.

Only a properly commissioned royal commission will meet the public interest. Otherwise, this matter will become a major political issue both federally and in Victoria.

Victorians have had enough. We and our grandchildren will be paying the price for decades after those responsible have long left office. This is generational debt, and not something that can be resolved in the next ten years.

Have a thoughtful day.