CFMEU TV ad claiming ice addicts have more rights than workers under ABCC ‘is nonsense’

A CFMEU ad that claims ice dealers have more rights than construction workers has been rubbished.

Minister for Employment Michaelia Cash.

A TV ad that claims ice dealers have more rights than construction workers prosecuted by the Coalition’s proposed watchdog, has been branded “nonsense” and rubbished by legal experts.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash lambasted the construction union, which paid for the prime-time television advertisement, for “scaremongering” after the ad was accused of conflating criminal and civil proceedings to make its claims.

Legal experts said the ad, which aired earlier this month as Parliament debated the Coalition’s Bill to restore the Australian, Building and Construction Commission watchdog, was based on a “flawed” comparison.

The ad, authorised by Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union national secretary Michael O’Connor, features an actor who portrays an ice dealer being interrogated.

He is told he has “the right to remain silent and you have the right to a lawyer of your choice”.

It then cuts to an older construction worker in the same position who is instead told “you don’t have the right to remain silent and you don’t have the right to a lawyer of your choice”, ending with the statement: “If Malcolm Turnbull gets his way, a worker will have less rights than an ice dealer.”

But Andrew Goldsmith, Professor in Criminal Justice at Flinders University, told the ABC News’ ‘Fact Check’ website the ad “equates two different processes with distinct purposes.

“ABCC examinations are used to gather information from witnesses in relation to construction workplace activities whereas an interview with a criminal suspect is concerned with collecting evidence for criminal prosecution.”

And Assistant Professor Joel Butler of Bond University Law School told Fact Check: “The difference is significant: even if a person giving evidence to the ABCC admits that they committed some wrongdoing, that ‘confession’, as far as the law is concerned, never happened. The person’s ‘right to silence’ is therefore preserved.’’

Senator Cash told The Australian it was “inexplicable how the union can justify spending so much of their member’s money on expensive advertising campaigns that have been found to be false and complete nonsense”.

“Such fraudulent campaigns indicate the utter desperation of the CFMEU to prevent the rule of law being upheld in the building industry.”

An ice dealer giving evidence to the Australian Crime Commission is also forced to answer questions.

“Compelling people to answer questions or provide documents is not new, and will continue to happen even if Mr Turnbull does not “get his way”,” Fact Check said.

“There are many examples in existing laws of people being forced to hand over documents and answer questions, including under the workplace laws brought in by the Rudd-Gillard Government”.

The CFMEU has been approached for comment.

Bill Shorten’s parliamentary secretary, Terri Butler, insisted the ABCC legislation would abrogate witnesses’ right to silence.

“Most people would find that to be quite a surprising idea that a body investigating possible breaches of civil law should have the right … to say to that person, ‘you do not have the right to silence; you do not have the right to refuse to answer questions if you consider the answers may incriminate you’,” Ms Butler, a former principal solicitor at Maurice Blackburn, told Sky News.