Labor and Coalition cut deal to force CFMEU into administration

The CFMEU’s construction divisions across the country will be forced into administration for up to five years after Labor and the Coalition struck a deal.

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt says he hopes the CFMEU hasn’t been shifting assets in recent days. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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The CFMEU’s construction divisions across the country will be forced into administration for up to five years after Labor and the Coalition struck a deal that will allow officials from the union to be banned for life and prohibit political donations from the union for years.

After days of negotiations, the government agreed to set a minimum administration period of three years and a maximum period of five years, and to lift the potential disqualification period for CFMEU officials from a maximum five years to life.

Administration of a branch can end earlier if the administrator gives written notice to the minister that he is satisfied a branch is functioning lawfully and effectively.

The Coalition dropped its demand that the political donation ban be legislated after the proposed administrator, Mark Irving, wrote to Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt, stating he would change the CFMEU rules to prohibit the making of party political donations or the funding of party political campaigns. Mr Irving will be required to report every six months to parliament but will not have to appear before senate estimates as originally requested by the Coalition, with Fair Work Commission general manager Murray Furlong to give evidence about the administrator’s work.

Under guiding principles set out in his letter to Senator Watt, Mr Irving says he will have zero tolerance for corruption, organised crime and bikers, but that “militancy in accordance with the Fair Work Act is not unlawful”.

“Vigorously, proactively, collectively engaging in a struggle to advance and protect members’ interests is not unlawful,” he wrote.

Mr Irving also set out his goals that include to remove “corrupt participants, from both union positions and those with whom the union deals”, to remove organised crime connections within the union; address organised crime and corruption within the industry as well as intimidation, menacing conduct and sexual harassment in the industry.

He said he aimed to return the union to “member control” in an environment in which democratic rights and member control could be exercised free of intimidation.

Opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the opposition had secured key changes to the bill that would strengthen the “crackdown on the rogue union”.

Senator Watt said he hoped no assets had been shifted by the CFMEU in recent days while the Coalition refused to back the bill, which he said represented the strongest action taken by any government against any union or employer in Australia’s history.

CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith said the government’s “targeted attack” on construction workers was a “dangerous descent into partisan politics over democracy, fairness and justice”.

“The deal cut by Labor and the Coalition is as shameful as it is unnecessary – an act of political expediency at the expense of fundamental tenets of Australian democracy and our legal system,” he said.

“It also fails to address the real issues of criminality and corruption that affect all of us in the industry, instead targeting the union.

“In doing so, these laws increase the danger faced by construction workers, leaving them exposed to the criminality and corruption the laws purport to stamp out.”

After Labor and the Coalition joined forces in the Senate to ­attack the Greens for not backing the bill, Greens leader Adam Bandt said the rushed legislation was an “unprecedented attack on the rule of law”, ensuring ­Senator Cash could appoint a new CFMEU administrator if there was a change of ­government.