Derryn Hinch must stand firm on ABCC changes as pressure builds

Hinch’s ABCC admission marks the end of a cosy construction industry arrangement but he needs to stand firm.

Australia is about to be a much better place thanks to Senator Hinch and the crossbenchers but they need to stand firm. (Picture Gary Ramage)

It’s very rare for politicians to admit they are wrong. Yet that’s what Senator Derryn Hinch has done and the Australian community are blessed that there are still representatives in Canberra prepared to admit error. We need a lot more of them because Parliament is a high-pressure environment where inevitably mistakes abound (ABCC win after Derryn Hinch flip, February 8).

And, as a result of Hinch’s 2017 decision to admit error plus the support of other crossbenchers, one of the worst agreements in Australia’s history looks like it will come to an end. It’s an anti-competitive agreement that involved both employers and unions and hid under the smokescreen of the industrial relations laws. It’s an agreement that lifted the building costs on most commercial projects between 20 and 30 per cent. It’s an agreement that reduced the number of hospitals, schools, roads and bridges in the community and it’s an agreement that partly funded two political parties, the Greens and ALP.

All those involved in the agreement did well, very well.

Anyone who dared leave the ranks, like Grocon, Boral or Kane Constructions, was punished in a most severe way. They were national heroes for standing up for what was wrong. They got little thanks.

But back in November last year, the legislation required to block the employer-union practices and re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission looked set to pass.

Finally, it seemed as if the government had the numbers in the Senate to stop joint union-large company control over who could tender and on what basis. But, at the last minute, an inexperienced Senator Hinch was put under incredible pressure from the unions and builders and he and his people cracked.

They inserted an amendment that delayed the introduction of the key elements until close to the next election, when the Greens and the ALP might be able to emasculate the legislation and maintain their cash flow.

A screenshot of Robert Gottliebsen’s commentary headline from Dec 1.

You should be aware that Hinch and I go way back but that did not stop me telling it as it was back in December 1 (How the CFMEU’s Dave Noonan outplayed Hinch on the ABCC bill).

What Derryn and the crossbenchers have now agreed to do is to first change the disastrous Hinch-driven two-year “transition” back to nine months.

A second amendment prohibits companies with non-code-complaint enterprise agreements from being awarded Commonwealth Government-funded building work during the nine-month transition period.

Under the amendment, such companies can still tender for projects during the nine-month period but they can’t be awarded contracts.

This second amendment is nearly as important as the first and any builder worth their salt knows what must be done. It doesn’t take long once you realise the game is up.

Nevertheless, it’s not surprising that some of the elements in the building industry are now putting pressure on Hinch and the crossbenchers to modify that second amendment.

Please Derryn and crossbenchers: Don’t cave in to the builders in 2017 the way you caved into the unions in 2016. They’re all part of the same agreement.

I had an SMS last night from one of Australia’s largest builders who is overjoyed at what Hinch and the others have done with both amendments. They can’t say anything because they are scared that the Senators will cave in to rogue pressures and that they will be mutilated as happened to Kane Constructions last December.

Those industry bodies and builders who are trying to pressure Hinch should be ashamed of themselves. Derryn should them they are talking anti-community nonsense and instruct them in Hinch-style what do.

Australia is about to be a much better place thanks to Hinch and the crossbenchers. But I should also add that there were also builders and genuine union people who knew that what they were doing was wrong. And full marks to employment minister Michaelia Cash for her persistence and to Malcolm Turnbull for giving her a free hand.