ABCC chief Nigel Hadgkiss did right thing in resigning

Yesterday’s withering Federal Court judgment against the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, fined $2.4 million for unlawful conduct, rekindled memories of Bob Hawke, as prime minister in 1986, deregistering the union’s militant forebear, the ­Builders Labourers Federation. It was impossible to envisage worse union behaviour, judge Geoffrey Flick ruled, than the CFMEU’s unlawful action involving 1000 workers at Sydney’s Barangaroo site in 2014. As a “recidivist offender” the CFMEU “repeatedly sought to place itself above the law”, he said, undeterred by previous penalties.

That’s no surprise. The CFMEU’s assets total about $90m. Given the union’s contempt for the law and its propensity to abuse, intimidate and threaten workers, managers, police and workplace inspectors doing their jobs, the Turnbull government, in the public interest, should emulate Mr Hawke.

Bill Shorten also needs to take a stand and act on Mr Hawke’s advice to cut Labor’s ties with the CFMEU. Unfortunately, the Opposition Leader has been under the union’s thumb since 2013, when he was running for the Labor leadership and won CFMEU support by agreeing in writing to oppose the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. But enough thuggery is enough.

In a vital economic sector plagued by volatile workplace relations, the law must prevail and be seen to prevail. That’s why ABCC chief Nigel Hadgkiss, under pressure from the government, was right to resign his $426,000-a-year job after admitting he contravened the Fair Work Act. Mr Hadgkiss, who faces a civil penalty hearing in court today, has admitted that in December 2013 he directed that looming changes to right-of-entry laws — passed by Labor to benefit unions and workers — not be published by the commission. CFMEU official Dave Noonan was quick to demand that Mr Hadgkiss resign or be sacked by Employment Minister Michaelia Cash over “a very serious matter’’. CFMEU leaders should themselves heed that advice after being found guilty in relation to numerous very serious matters.