Coalition’s major fail in dealing with rogue trade unionists

It is encouraging that Scott Morrison has threatened to deregister the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union, but why has it taken so long for the Coalition to take on these rogue militants?

The enlarged CFMEU was created on the Coalition’s watch with nothing done to stop it. This union has been lashed by judges who say it has only contempt for the law. Its law-breaking officials have racked up millions of dollars in fines, brushed off as the cost of doing business. Its thuggish behaviour has been tolerated by the Coalition government, and its Labor predecessor, for far too long.

The Prime Minister has flagged reviving the government’s Ensuring Integrity Bill. This legislation would mean union officials, such as Victorian construction boss John Setka, would be disqualified if they are not deemed “fit and proper”.

This same legislation could have stopped the formation of the mega CFMEU by introducing a public interest test for such mergers. It also would give government a greater capacity to deregister unions. The case against the CFMEU behemoth — about 150,000 members, $300 million in assets and $150m in annual revenue — is a slam dunk.

The CFMEU has been fined about $16m since 2005 and dozens of its officials are subject to further legal proceedings. Judge after judge has described the CFMEU as a law unto itself. Encouraged by the ACTU, it decides which laws to follow and which to break.

Yet the Coalition hardly lifted a finger to see the Ensuring Integrity Bill passed by the Senate. Worse, it withdrew the bill before the vote. Craig Laundy, workplace minister at the time, did not win crossbench support for the bill so he gave up.

There was no sustained public campaign for the bill and no real pressure applied to Labor to support it. Neither was Laundy’s predecessor, Michaelia Cash, keen to take on the CFMEU. Where was the Federal Court action or special legislation to force deregistration of its predecessor? Why did the Coalition do nothing to stop the CFMEU merging with the Maritime Union and the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union?

Workplace relations policy was once a priority for Coalition governments. Sure, the present government established a royal commission into unions, reinstated the construction watchdog and introduced new requirements for registered organisations, but there has been little appetite for wider reform, let alone taking on the unions.

The next election will be a turning point for workplace relations. The campaign by the ACTU to “change the rules” has been effectively adopted by Labor. The changes they seek are sweeping and will have profound implications. The unions want to roll back Australia’s industrial architecture to the 1970s.

Unions will push their blueprint to be enshrined in Labor’s platform at December’s national conference. This will include removing impediments to the right to strike, relaxing workplace entry laws for union officials, introducing criminal penalties for wage theft and industrial manslaughter, and lifting restrictions on pattern bargaining and secondary boycotts. The conference also will confirm Labor’s policy of reinstating weekend penalty rates and extending leave entitlements to include domestic violence, bereavement and on compassionate grounds. Unions also want casual workers to be made permanent automatically after six months and be paid superannuation.

The ACTU themes this as addressing inequality. It asks voters to join its crusade to deliver greater job security and increase stagnant wages. The principal means for delivering this is an empowerment of unions in workplaces. “We need to change the rules to give all working people the basic rights they need to improve their living standards,” the ACTU says.

Labor says labour market reform is a key tool in the fight against inequality. The party is committed to increasing the bargaining power of workers (unions) and the capacity of the independent umpire to intervene in workplaces. Opposition workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor has a detailed plan for reform in development. The upshot is the Rudd-Gillard government’s Fair Work legislation lives under a Morrison government but it will be dead under a Shorten government. New Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer has not foreshadowed whether she wants to overhaul the present system or will go to the election defending it but, to be fair, she has adopted the role only recently.

While unions represent just 9.3 per cent of workers in the private sector, they probably have never been more influential in politics. It is scandalous that the CFMEU continues to be affiliated to Labor and has a say over policy, candidates and personnel. Many Labor MPs are appalled by its behaviour but fear taking it on.

In 2015, Bob Hawke told me he would not hesitate to deregister the CFMEU given its behaviour. In 1986, the Hawke government deregistered the Building Labourers Federation, its forerunner. Last year, Kevin Rudd told me he agreed with Hawke

So what is the Coalition waiting for? The case for taking on the CFMEU could not be more persuasive. Two former Labor prime ministers have a stronger position on the rogue union than did the previous two Liberal prime ministers, Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott.

It remains to be seen whether Morrison will back his rhetoric with action.