Team Albanese should heed the dangers of ideological overreach

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke, whose ‘ideological zeal is damaging Labor’s credibility’. Picture: Getty Images

The ancient Greeks taught us that hubris often leads to the death of a tragic figure. In modern politics, where the lessons of history are routinely ignored, hubris continues to strike down all kinds of fellows.

John Howard’s downfall has often been attributed to hubris after too many years in government. The Work Choices legislation, introduced after the Coalition gained control of both houses of parliament in 2004, was seen by many as too ideological. As Liberal spokesman Andrew Robb said about Work Choices after the 2007 election, “In some areas we went further than the public was prepared to accept.”

Is it possible that the new Labor government, barely a few months in office, is already showing signs of hubris? To be sure, a newly elected government can reasonably claim an election mandate to implement promises made during the election. The issue is how those promises are delivered and who are the biggest beneficiaries of them.

Control of the Senate with the Greens could deliver a clean sweep of Labor’s ideological wish list in industrial relations. If so, the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union will cheer the loudest.

Union applause has already begun following Labor’s stated determination to disembowel the Australian Building and Construction Commission. The building regulator was responsible for investigating and prosecuting the union for serious breaches of the Fair Work Act, with courts imposing millions of dollars in fines on unions and their leaders.

Early hubris from Labor, even more distasteful than one born of too many years in office, won’t go unnoticed by voters.

To that end, Anthony Albanese would be wise to rein in some of his more ideologically zealous ministers, starting with Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke. Burke’s ideological zeal is damaging Labor’s credibility.

Take his claims to justify Labor neutering of the ABCC. A few weeks ago, Burke said the ABCC was being hollowed out because it was wrong to spend taxpayers’ money on whether someone could put a union sticker on to their helmet or what flag might be flying at a building site.

Burke knows better than most that the ABCC has led prosecutions against the CFMEU for serious breaches of the Fair Work Act, including intimidation and bullying. Burke knows that numerous judges have condemned the construction arm of the union as one of the country’s worst recidivists.

Perhaps Canberra is too far removed for Burke to understand, or care about, what happens on the ground. South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas doesn’t have that luxury, which explains why the relatively new Labor Premier has taken a principled stand against the rogue construction union.

As David Penberthy reported in The Australian on Monday, Malinauskas has signalled that his government will return a $125,000 donation from the Victorian branch of the CFMEU made before SA’s March 19 election or hand the money over to a charity.

The Premier’s move was triggered by rotten stunts and vandalism at the headquarters of the SA Master Builders Association last Friday. Malinauskas pointed out that “intimidating behaviour is never in the interests of working people”.

As Penberthy also reported, just days before the vandalism, video footage emerged from a meeting of the SA CFMEU where John Setka and two other union leaders stood on stage repeatedly shouting “union” while the hundred or so members shouted “power”.

Malinauskas said he had been concerned that “a bad culture within sections of the CFMEU could find its way over the border into SA”.

Alas, Canberra is not immune from the CFMEU’s bad culture. As exciting as it is for a new minister to wield power, it would be foolhardy for Burke to think voters won’t care about the policy implications of Labor’s tawdry relationship with the CFMEU.

Hollowing out the ABCC at the behest of the CFMEU – the biggest law-breaking union in the country – is manifestly bad policy. But the flow of money from the CFMEU to federal Labor means this law-breaking union is holding the Albanese government by the scruff of its neck. Unions also have dictated Labor’s other early ideological overreach.

By getting rid of new disclosure laws that applied to superannuation funds, laws that would have come into effect right now, Labor policy is being dictated by industry funds that send money to unions at the expense of superannuation members.

The CFMEU is the biggest beneficiary of payments from industry funds. Last financial year it received $6,147,986 from industry funds. First Super, with funds under management that are a fraction of bigger funds such as AustralianSuper, doled out the highest amount to unions – $3,821,756 in the last financial year, and much of that went to the CFMEU. Labor is the ultimate beneficiary; the CFMEU sent $7m directly to Labor between 1998-99 and 2019-20.

Industry funds will say that compared with their funds under management, what they pay unions is pocket change. That’s like saying it’s fine to take small amounts from superannuation members. These are not small amounts to an individual union, nor is it pocket change for the Labor Party. We know, from Labor’s haste to get rid of new disclosure laws for super funds, that this money buys an enormous amount of influence.

Industry funds also will claim the payments to unions are legitimate commercial payments. If there is nothing to hide, why are industry funds so dead set against itemising these payments?

There are signs of more hubris from Burke this week when he said it was a “rort” for companies to use unilateral termination provisions in industrial relations laws. In fact, these provisions, which were introduced by Julia Gillard, are available to both employers and employees after the nominal expiry date of a workplace agreement.

The minister’s determination to have a barney with big business will thrill Labor’s paymasters: union leaders. That said, no one need shed a tear for big business either. Australia’s biggest companies will have only themselves to blame, having shied away from serious policy debates on industrial relations and economic matters for years, instead faffing on about diversity and other fashionable topics.

In a perfect illustration of Churchill’s warning, Australia’s biggest companies have been appeasing the crocodiles for years in the hope they would get eaten last. Now it’s dinner time for the crocodiles.

If, at the behest of unions, and with the help of the Greens, Labor takes the country further than Australians accept, the government’s hubris won’t be forgotten.