Union integrity bill passes, but Senate has concerns

Proposed laws making it easier to disqualify union officials and deregister unions have passed the lower house.

Attorney-General Christian Porter, left, and Energy Minister Angus Taylor arrive for question time.

Proposed laws making it easier to disqualify union officials and deregister unions have passed the lower house but will not be voted on by the Senate before late ­October.

Lower house MPs voted 75-67 in support of the Coalition’s Ensuring Integrity Bill yesterday. The government now faces the challenge of meeting concerns expressed by the Senate crossbench about the proposals. In parliament yesterday, Attorney-General Chris­tian Porter sought to rebuff ALP and union claims that unions could face deregistration by the Federal Court for relatively minor civil breaches.

Mr Porter also again denied Labor and union claims that the legislation would open the way for the nurses’ union to be deregistered if members took unprotected industrial action in support of better staff ratios.

The opposition and the ACTU insist passage of the bill would allow the Federal Court to deregister the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation if nurses took unprotected action to protest against unsafe staffing levels at a hospital or aged-care facility.

Mr Porter said yesterday the claim was patently absurd, saying no nurses’ union had engaged in the type of systemic unlawful conduct that would provide the basis for a court to deregister it.

In considering whether it would be “just, in all the circumstances” to deregister an organisation, the government says the bill expressly requires the Federal Court to consider the nature of the matter giving rise to the application and what is in the best interests of the members of the ­organisation as a whole.

Mr Porter also rejected claims by Greens MP Adam Bandt that industrial action by bus drivers was potential grounds for deregistering their union under the bill.

The bill will be subject to a Senate inquiry reporting by October 25 before being voted on in the Senate.

Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said the new legislation would mean there were real consequences for registered organisations and officials “who operate like they are above the law”.

“The construction unions refuse to abandon their toxic culture and as a result it’s getting worse for our members and our industry by the day,” she said. “Since the start of 2017 alone, building unions have been slapped with almost $8 million in penalties and fines for over 800 breaches of the law spanning almost 40 separate court cases,” Ms Wawn said.