Shamed unionists face lifetime bans in CFMEU takeover

Disgraced construction union leaders could be banned from their jobs for life after Labor and the Coalition struck a deal giving an independent administrator control of the CFMEU for at least three years.

The compromise law was thrashed out on Monday in response to a litany of issues exposed in the Building Bad investigation by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes, including alleged corruption and bikie infiltration.

Coalition workplace relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt reached a deal on the CFMEU.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

But the bill, which passed parliament on Monday night, could be challenged by the union in the courts and will test the expected administrator Mark Irving KC’s ability to turn around a union with deep-seated loyalties and a militant culture.

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt said the law would turn around Australia’s $269 billion construction sector. “When this legislation passes, what it will show is that the time for corruption, criminality, violence and bikies in Australia’s construction union and the industry is coming to an end,” he said.

After weeks of public sparring, Labor agreed to Coalition demands to require six monthly reports to parliament from the administrator, a three-year minimum administration and the lifetime bans for dodgy unionists.

The Coalition failed to extract a legal guarantee barring union political donations, settling instead for an assurance from Irving that they would not occur.

Only the Greens opposed the bill, which circumvents a CFMEU legal challenge to the Fair Work Commission’s attempt to push the union into administration under existing laws, with party leader Adam Bandt slamming the laws as “draconian”.

All state and territory divisions of the union will be forced into administration as early as next week, Watt confirmed. He acknowledged there could be an appeal by the union but said that was why the legislation should have passed last week when the government first unveiled it.

“That is obviously open to the CFMEU to undertake that legal challenge and again this is one of the reasons that we wanted to get this legislation passed quickly, so that we can move through as many stages as possible,” he said in Canberra.

Opposition workplace relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash conceded the letter from Irving on donations was not legally binding but said she was prepared to accept his assurance.

Opposition workplace relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash (left), Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Simon Birmingham in Parliament House.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I have accepted what minister Watt has provided to me, if this is indeed not true, then that is a reflection on minister Watt,” she said.

Greens leader Adam Bandt criticised the major parties’ agreement. “Labor and the Liberals have just cut a deal to ram through flawed and draconian laws that threaten fundamental rights,” he said in a statement. “Civil liberties groups have rightly said this bill is a threat to freedom of association and the rights of all unions and membership-based organisations.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s move to table a bill to bring back the union watchdog scrapped by Labor, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, and another allowing lifetime bans for corrupt union officials was knocked back by Watt, who said it would be “a witch hunt against all unions”.

Earlier on Monday, Senator Jacqui Lambie used parliamentary privilege to accuse major contractors of working with the CFMEU to engage in price fixing on government projects and allege that construction workers were being forced to join the union to work on them.

Former Victorian CFMEU boss John Setka leading a protest in 2016. Credit: Jesse Marlow

“I have a very good source that construction workers are being compelled to join the CFMEU for an annual fee of $1200 as a condition for participating in Victorian Big Build projects,” she said. “This practice raises serious concerns about the violation of workers’ rights and the enforcement of freedom of association, which is a fundamental legal principle in Australia.”

Lambie said she was told this practice was happening on worksites run by “foreign-owned” tier 1 contractors.

“I have also received credible information that suggests that these tier 1 contractors may be colluding with the CFMEU to breach anti-competition laws and engage in price fixing on government projects,” Lambie said. “This alleged conspiracy involves selecting only CFMEU endorsed non-competitive labour hire firms undermining fair competition.”

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Lambie called on the government to withhold money from projects if contractors continued to “turn a blind eye” to corruption on sites.

Speaking in the Senate, she called on the government to investigate revoking Australian work rights for Gerry McCrudden, citing reports in this masthead that the high-ranking CFMEU official warned that any firms without the union’s backing would be unofficially black-banned from all Victorian Big Build sites.

Also in the Senate, Lambie named Victorian branch senior vice president Joe Myles, saying she understood he played a “significant role in organising these activities”.

Myles did not respond to a request for comment and nor did the CFMEU’s national office. McCrudden could not be contacted.

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