100 CFMEU militants in court over building site disruptions

Number of construction unionists facing prosecution for allegedly wreaking havoc on building sites has soared to 100.

Perth Labor members and supporters turned up to Hyde Park for the Labor leaders breakfast debate. Perth CMFEU official, Joe McDonald, listens to what Bill Shorten has to say.

The number of militant construction unionists facing prosecution for allegedly wreaking havoc on the nation’s building sites has soared to 100, as Malcolm Turnbull places industrial lawlessness at the heart of his election campaign.

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, its state branches and officials have also been fined a total of $7 million for industrial breaches which have been dealt with by the courts since 2002 after the Cole royal commission.

The Australian can reveal the Fair Work Building and Construction agency has launched action against 100 CFMEU officials and delegates who are before the courts, accused of more than 1000 industrial breaches.

The allegations include coercion, unlawful industrial action, intimidation and bullying and right-of-entry breaches.

Those before the courts include­ the CFMEU’s national secretary Michael O’Connor, whose brother Brendan O’Connor is Labor’s workplace relations spokesman, construction division head Dave Noonan, and NSW and Queensland secretaries Brian Parker and Michael Ravbar.

Mr O’Connor and Mr Noonan are alleged to have conducted unlawful blockades at disputes in Sydney and Perth. They intend to defend the charges.

The CFMEU has vigorously denied that Mr Ravbar broke indust­rial laws at a Queensland University of Technology site and the Enoggera army barracks in Brisbane and denied that Mr Parker broke industrial laws at a construction site in Sydney’s Harold­ Park.

Employment Minister Mich­ael­ia Cash seized on the prosecutions, branding Bill Shorten “untrustworthy” and “beholden to unions who tolerate lawlessness, whose policy positions are reckless to the economy and whose influenc­e is disastrous for job crea­tion should always be challenged’’.

“Australia’s future simply cannot be trusted with someone who is so willing to continually align himself with the most militant trade unions in Australia,” she said. She called for the Opposition Leader to “support the re-establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commis­sion and turn his talk into action”.

GRAPHIC: CFMEU breaches

The prosecutions against the CFMEU, one of the nation’s most powerful unions, with strong ties to the ALP, has reached a crescendo as the Senate impasse over the Turnbull government’s plans to reinstate the Howard-era ABCC threatens to end in a double-dissolution election.

The bill to reintroduce the construction industry watchdog, which was dumped by the Gillard government, is stalled in the Senate after being rejected once by Labor and the Greens.

The rejection of the ABCC bill a second time would provide a clear constitutional trigger for a double-dissolution election, which Mr Turnbull could call for July 2.

The Prime Minister would then use the prospect of introducing the ABCC at a joint sitting of parliament as a key election issue building on the disclosures of the Heydon royal commission into trade union corruption.

A spokesman for the Oppos­ition Leader said: “The same laws should apply to everyone without exception.”

“The government should be supporting Labor’s plan to double the maximum penalties for all criminal offences under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act.”

Muscling up his attack, Mr Turnbull accused Labor of being “in denial about the conduct of the CFMEU and the problems in the construction sector, the lawlessness in the construction sector’’.

“This is not a contentious issue. Last night we saw on television Mr Shorten defending the CFMEU, in denial of all of the breaches of law, the catalogue of court cases.’’

Mr Turnbull said the Heydon royal commission into union behaviour reminded “us of how deep the problems of lawlessness in the construction sector are, but just in case people had overlooked the reality, there it was, laid out, facts’’.

He said the axing of the ABCC had seen industrial disputes and lawlessness increase.

Master Builders Australia chief executive Wilhelm Harnisch said the industrial unrest­ in the construction industry was increasing the cost of building hospitals, schools and other projects by an extra 10-30 per cent.

“Worse, these additional costs are imposed on the community because of systemic and in-ground culture of lawlessness exhibited by building unions,’’ he said.

Figures obtained by The Australian reveal the CFMEU and its officials have been slapped with $6.98m in fines since the Howard government’s first building industry regulator set up in 2002 in the wake of the Cole royal commission. Over the same period, the CFMEU has reportedly donated more than $10m to the ALP.

The list of prosecutions before the courts is topped by CFMEU delegate and organiser Duncan McAllister — formerly of the Queensland Builders Labourers Federation, which merged with the CFMEU — who is ­accused of 101 contraventions of industrial law over disputes in Brisbane in 2012 and 2013. Anthony Kong is also involved in the Brisbane disputes, allegedly committing 62 breaches.

Organisers Michael Powell, Gareth Stephenson and Joseph McDonald, Victoria branch president Ralph Edwards and Victoria branch assistant secretary Shaun Reardon have been fined more than $440,000 since 2002 when the Howard government set up the Building Industry Taskforce, which was followed by the first ABCC and ultimately the FWBC, officially known as the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate.

Mr Noonan branded FWBC “highly politicised” and accused Nigel Hadgkiss, director of the Fair Work Building and Construction Inspectorate, of “conducting an overt political campaign for increased powers”.

“Mr Hadgkiss has still not explained why he has failed to prosecute one employer for under­payments, sham contracting or the theft of workers entitlements, despite having a statutory oblig­ation to do so,’’ Mr Noonan said.

“The fact that FWBC continues to engage in inflammatory public comment points to the fact that they are integrally involved in the current parliamentary controversies around the ABCC bill.”

“Mr Hadgkiss and the Liberal Party are presiding over a serious corruption of public policy.”

But Mr Hadgkiss said the “senior leadership of the CFMEU” had “not done anything to indicate that law breaking … is of concern’’.