Family First Senator Bob Day and Prime Minister to negotiate on the Australian Building and Construction Commission Bill

FAMILY First Senator Bob Day has revealed what it will take for the crossbench to support the government’s election-triggering construction industry bill.

Day names his price for bill support

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull could secure enough support from the crossbench to see the government’s industrial legislations reformed passed — and avoid a double dissolution election — if he agrees to sector-by-sector anti-corruption watchdogs, Senator Bob Day claims.

Senator Day, of the Family First party, said he told Mr Turnbull yesterday he believes the government could obtain the necessary six crossbench votes to pass its Australian Building and Construction Commission Bill by agreeing to similar regulators for other industries.

“Given the government has established an anti-corruption measure in the ABCC to (the construction) sector then I can’t see any reason why … if it were to emerge that there were corruption that my colleagues identified in other sectors why wouldn’t they establish a similar anti-corruption measure for those sectors,” he told the ABC.

Mr Turnbull said Senator Day was showing “real leadership” by attempting to broker a deal amongst the crossbenchers.

“What we have said is that if Bob can present six Senators who are prepared to support the legislation and if the amendments they propose are ones that are consistent with the purpose and intent of the bill and don’t weaken it, we would consider them,” he said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been speaking to Senator Day about finding six senators to support the bill. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

“Obviously we don’t know what they would be but we’re dealing with the independents in good faith.

“But this is a Building and Construction Commission Bill and while I recognise that some of the Senators feel there should be a federal ICAC that deals with public servants and politicians and so forth, that is quite a separate issue and really it’s another issue; what its merits is open to debate.”

Palmer United Party Senator Dio Wang said negotiations between the government and the crossbench had stalled.

“Since Christmas, I have been talking to the Government and the PM’s office about the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission laws in the wake of the findings of the Trade Union Royal Commission being released,” he said in a statement.

“But while discussions were initially constructive, we have not received any substantive response in recent weeks since the Government decided to prioritise laws to make it harder for people to elect independent voices to the Senate – only media reports.

Negoations have stalled, according to Senator Dio Wang. Picture: Kym Smith.

“We have not been negotiating as a political tactic for a convenient election date – our amendments on the ABCC Bill go toward the Government’s own work on tackling corruption in areas such as sham contracting and wage exploitation, so it’s hard to understand why the Government would no longer want to discuss them in good faith.”

He called for all parties to commit to a parliamentary inquiry into a federal anti-corruption watchdog.

Senator Day said he did not believe a single anti-corruption watchdog, akin to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) was needed, and denied a sector-by-sector approach was unwieldy.

He said separate watchdogs for each industry proved to be corrupt were needed to ensure a tailor-made approach.

Mr Turnbull phoned Senator Day yesterday to sound him out about what it would take to secure enough support from the crossbench to pass the ABCC Bill and avoid going to a double dissolution election in July.

Employment Minister Michaela Cash said the government had always been prepared to negotiate in good faith with the crossbench.

“We are prepared to look at amendments but we are not prepared to look at amendments that are going to in any way undermine the integrity of the Australian Building and Construction Commission legislation,” she told Sunrise.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the government is always prepared to negotiate with the crossbench. Picture: Ray Strange

Senator Cash said the government wanted to negotiate with the crossbench as a bloc.

“The point the Prime Minister is making is this: the crossbenchers need a minimum of six of them to agree to any course of action going forward,” she said.

“So we have said that we would prefer now to deal with them as a bloc.

“Come to us with amendments but preferably if you are going to bring amendments that already have six of the crossbenchers agreeing to them.

“If we don’t get a minimum of six the amendments just aren’t going to get up.”

It comes as the CFMEU yesterday upped its campaign against the ABCC legislation, claiming Mr Turnbull was “happy for workers to die”.

The Prime Minister has previously said if the ABCC legislation does not pass during a special sitting on Parliament on April 18 he would call a double dissolution election for July 2 to resolve the senate deadlock.