Workplace legislation will lift productivity and jobs

Whatever concessions Pauline Hanson or Jacqui Lambie hope to squeeze out of the Morrison government this week by holding out on delivering key Senate votes to pass the Ensuring Integrity Bill, they should put economic growth, jobs and productivity first by supporting the legislation. In a busy fortnight before Christmas, the Senate will also consider repealing the Medivac legislation.

The Ensuring Integrity Bill is designed to bring rogue unions to heel, especially those that add risk and extra costs to projects in the construction sector, including public infrastructure building, but the legislation is even-handed, covering employer organisations and unions.

The Centre Alliance’s Rex Patrick has shown good judgment in deciding to vote for the bill when it returns to the Senate from Monday. The legislation was necessary, Senator Patrick told workplace editor Ewin Hannan, to deal with systemic law-breaking by unions. He intends to read out to the Senate the frustrated comments of Federal Court judges’ adverse rulings against the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union. The union has committed 2164 breaches of industrial law since 2004. “You cannot have a situation where people are repeatedly breaking the law and the courts are unable to deal with it,” Senator Patrick told Hannan. He regards himself as a friend of unions and defends their role in protecting workers, securing payrises and conditions and dealing with safety issues. But they are not above the law.

Centre Alliance is showing more sense than opposition industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke, who complained on Sunday that Scott Morrison had used the conduct of CFMEU Victorian leader John Setka as “very clever marketing” for the bill. Given Mr Setka’s record and that of his union, it is a case of “if the cap fits …”

Mr Burke also used the alleged 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering and terrorism rules by Westpac to discredit the bill, saying a union could be shut down for “three breaches of paper work”. Mr Burke’s comparison is erroneous, however. Westpac is being taken to the Federal Court by the financial crimes watchdog Austrac. And on Sunday, Josh Frydenberg flagged the prospect of Westpac executives being disqualified by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

After speaking with 20 unions and the ACTU over the past month, Centre Alliance has also secured changes, Senator Patrick said, ensuring that any “reasonable person would say (had made it) pretty near impossible’’ for unions “to be done over for a paperwork misdemeanour’’. Such changes, agreed to by Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter, go a long way to addressing some of Labor’s and the unions’ strongest objections to the bill, although ACTU secretary Sally McManus stood her ground on Sunday, insisting the amendments were a “sick joke”.

Mr Porter says the bill makes it clear the courts must take the gravity of conduct into account when considering disqualification or deregistration.

The ensuring integrity bill has been before parliament since 2017. Passing it now would be a positive reform to give economic activity a much-needed boost in the new year.