Christian Porter’s union divorce plan solves multiple problems

Attorney-General Christian Porter in the House of Representatives at Parliament House earlier last month. Picture: Getty Images

Christian Porter’s new strategy against the CFMEU represents a significant tactical shift that opens the way for the break-up of the militant union, cements the death of the Coalition’s Ensuring Integrity Bill, and aims to further isolate the union’s Victorian leader,
John Setka.

Porter is exploiting the conflict inside the dysfunctional CFMEU, offering a legislative fix that would allow the Tony Maher-led mining and energy division, and Michael O’Connor’s manufacturing division, to undo their merger with the construction and maritime divisions.

Maher and O’Connor are trapped in an unhappy marriage, effectively operating as independent federal unions, but unable to divorce their former comrades as the existing law prevents them splitting due to the time they have been amalgamated.

Porter’s proposal provides an exit path, letting them apply to Fair Work for a member ballot on leaving. If a majority approve, their divisions
would become standalone operations, reducing the CFMEU to the CMU.

Porter’s latest approach is more targeted and could meet less resistance from Anthony Albanese and ACTU secretary Sally McManus — neither fans of Setka — than the unpopular, union-restricting Ensuring Integrity Bill.

That bill, denied passage in the Senate last year, was shelved by Scott Morrison and Porter at the start of this year’s pandemic as an olive branch to the union movement.

Its content had significant implications for unions and workers beyond the CFMEU, meaning the Coalition would have faced a renewed campaign of opposition by the labour movement, and no certainty of Senate crossbench approval, if it tried to revive it once the economy recovered.

The bill is now officially dead, with Porter trying to be more surgical, in a bid to ring-fence the CFMEU. The government’s expectation is the mining and energy division would be first to take up the opportunity presented by the new legislation, followed by the manufacturing division.

Once they have walked, the construction and maritime divisions would be weakened, At that stage, the government would look at proceeding with a further legislative response that targets the two divisions and, in particular, Setka

McManus and 14 national union leaders have previously called for Setka to resign. He refused but they remain scathing of his defiant conduct.

O’Connor and Maher, well-regarded strategic operators, will see the government’s political motives. But both have also had enough of Setka and his allies. Porter’s proposal offers an escape hatch.