By David Crowe and Olivia Ireland
Greens leader Adam Bandt will ramp up a campaign to defeat Labor in five key seats at the federal election after defending his colleague, Max Chandler-Mather, against claims he endorsed union corruption and thuggery.
Bandt will head to Brisbane within days to appeal to Labor supporters to switch their allegiance to the Greens after he announced new policies including $514 billion in corporate tax increases.
In a fight for the loyalty of the union movement, cabinet ministers declared their support for ordinary union members but rebuked Chandler-Mather for joining former officials from the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union at a rally where protesters held placards likening Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to a Nazi.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Australians could see the Greens “throw in their lot with thuggery” after the appearance at the rally.
“The government’s stance on this is very simple and very clear: there is no place for criminality or corruption or thuggery within the trade union movement,” he said.
With seven cabinet ministers singling out the Greens MP for criticism, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said Chandler-Mather had associated himself with allegations of violence, intimidation and misogyny.
Chandler-Mather defended speaking at the rally and said CFMEU members had been denied natural justice, but he rejected the placards about the prime minister.
“Of course, I don’t agree with those signs, they’re offensive. However, it’s ridiculous to expect a speaker to audit every sign that appears at a rally with thousands of people in attendance,” he said.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Bandt defended his colleague despite the revelations about the CFMEU in the Building Bad investigation by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes into allegations of corruption, standover tactics, threats of violence and links to organised crime within the union.
“He was there to speak to the members, to the people who had attended the rally, not to defend any officials,” Bandt said.
Greens leader Adam Bandt says MP Max Chandler-Mather (inset) was simply addressing rank-and-file members at the CFMEU protest in Brisbane.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, AAP
Bandt knew that Chandler-Mather intended to address the Brisbane rally, according to individuals who spoke on condition they were not named. The Greens leader’s office helped arrange the MP’s appearance on the ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday night.
Employment Minister Murray Watt played down support for the CFMEU from the Electrical Trades Union and others who oppose the government’s intervention to place the CFMEU’s construction arm into administration, while also insisting the move had the “overwhelming support” of union members as well as the ACTU.
Bandt will fly to Brisbane in the coming days to campaign in Moreton, where Labor MP Graham Perrett is retiring at the election and Greens candidate Remah Naji, a Palestinian Australian, is seeking to win the seat in the same way the party won the nearby seats of Brisbane, Griffith and Ryan at the last election.
The Greens have also identified the Labor seats of Wills and Macnamara in Melbourne, Richmond on the north coast of NSW, and Perth in Western Australia as their top objectives at the election. They are also targeting the Liberal seat of Sturt in South Australia.
Bandt used his address to the National Press Club to call for a $514 billion tax increase on corporate Australia over a decade to pay for free dental care in a major expansion of Medicare.
Asked how he would prevent the additional cost on business from being passed onto customers at a time of concerns about the cost of living, Bandt said the party backed the use of “price-gouging” laws to control prices.
Bandt said housing prices were unaffordable and tax policies had to change to stop encouraging property speculation.
“We need to slow the growth in housing prices to give wages a chance to catch up. Otherwise, people are never going to get ahead,” he said.
“If you take that money that currently Labor and the Liberals are giving to wealthy property investors, then you are going to slow this crazy, unsustainable growth in house prices that we’re seeing.”
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.