Labor won’t play PM’s ‘game’ on union power: Bill Shorten

Bill Shorten has hit back at ultimatum that Labor pass laws to curb union ­corruption and power.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has dismissed demands for the opposition to back union reform or face an election on the issue. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Bill Shorten has hit back at Malcolm Turnbull’s ultimatum that Labor pass laws to curb union ­corruption and power or face an election campaign waged on ­industrial relations, accusing the Prime Minister of reheating “Tony Abbott’s union-bashing’’ exercise.

Key conservative Senate crossbenchers have swung in behind the Prime Minister, however, backing his push to win support for stalled laws designed to subject union leaders to the same governance rules as company directors and reinstate the construction industry watchdog.

The nation’s construction union has pledged a “root and branch’’ review of its internal governance in the wake of revelations from the trade union royal commission. CFMEU construction national secretary Dave Noonan yesterday conceded there were lessons to be learned from the royal commission, citing the need for “transparency” and “openness”.

The Opposition Leader, who said Labor had “zero tolerance for criminality’’, dismissed demands for the opposition to back union reform or face an election on the issue. “I’m not going to play some dog whistle game where Malcolm Turnbull backs the big end of town and just says ‘The source of all evil is trade unions’. I’m not buying that.’’

In an exclusive interview, Mr Turnbull told The Weekend Australian he also intended to pursue the findings of the trade union royal commission, declaring its head, former High Court judge Dyson Heydon, an “impartial straight-shooter” who should not be subjected to political stunts. Mr Noonan flagged a wide-ranging review of union decision-making procedures last week, in response to allegations about charity fundraising in the NSW branch of the CFMEU and dealings with construction firms, including companies owned by bankrupt businessman George Alex.

He told The Australian yesterday he was highly critical of the royal commission but was willing to learn from it.

“Whilst we are very critical of the royal commission (and) ... it’s been called for base political motives, that doesn’t mean we won’t take learnings from it, and the union is engaged in a thorough, root-to-branch review of all of our governance procedures, and that will include how charities are dealt with,” Mr Noonan said.

Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm and Family First senator Bob Day yesterday backed Mr Turnbull’s pledge to put industrial relations at the forefront of the next election campaign unless Labor “comes to its senses’’, saying reviving the Australian Building and Construction Commission was too “serious” to let slide.

Senator Leyonhjelm — who voted with fellow independents Nick Xenophon, John Madigan and Senator Day in August to re-establish the construction industry watchdog, although the numbers fell short — said there was “obviously criminal activity” in the building industry and the behaviour shouldn’t be defended.

“Bill (Shorten) would be on shaky ground arguing against the ABCC given the revelations of the royal commission,” Senator Leyonhjelm told The Australian.

“It’s very clear that the CFMEU is engaged in criminal conduct and the ABCC when it was previously established cleaned up the building industry. When it was abolished, the building industry is very clearly now back to its old practices. There is a strong case for reinstating the ABCC to do its job.’’

In his weekend interview, Mr Turnbull offered an olive branch to Mr Shorten and the union movement. He told The Weekend Australian he was “very happy to talk” to Mr Shorten and the ACTU leadership about passing stalled laws to curb corruption in the building and construction industry and provide transparency in union management, but he wouldn’t waste parliament’s time if the new industrial laws were not going to be passed.

He said the blocked laws, which could provide a double-dissolution election trigger, were necessary.

“I think the only way they will not be a frontline issue is if the Labor Party comes to its senses and agrees to changes,” he said.

Labor has twice blocked legislation for the reintroduction of the ABCC to monitor and promote standards of conduct in the building industry, and the Registered Organisations Bill to impose transparency on union officials.

If the government wished, it could use the blocked bills as the basis to call a double-dissolution election — early next year — and campaign on cleaning up union corruption.

Senator Day warned the Prime Minister that his push for a “technological revolution” in the economy and workplace would go nowhere unless the existing “workplace regulation prison system” changed.

“Union corruption and what’s coming out of the royal commission is just a very visible and graphic symptom of the deeper illness that we have within the Australian system,” Senator Day said.

Independent senator Glenn Lazarus, who voted with crossbenchers Jacqui Lambie and Ricky Muir to reject the ABCC legislation, cautioned the government against “taking a sledge hammer” to certain issues and industries because a small group of people were doing the wrong thing.

“The ABCC bill needs to be amended and it also needs to be informed by the outcome of the royal commission,” Senator Lazarus said.

Master Builders Australia chief executive Wilhelm Harnisch said the industry welcomed Mr Turnbull actively seeking a bipartisan solution to an “entrenched and endemic problem within the construction industry’’ by seeking support for the ABCC. “The proposed merger between the CFMEU and the MUA (Maritime Union of Australia) must surely provide greater urgency and cogency for the Labor Party to get behind the proposal to reinstate the powers of the ABCC,’’ Mr Harnisch said.

Revelations concerning the CFMEU were damaging the broader union movement.

Additional reporting: Rosie Lewis