Labor and the Coalition put aside days of sparring to pass a bill letting an administrator clean up the disgraced construction union.
Coalition workplace relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt reached a deal on the CFMEU.But the bill, which passed parliament on Monday night, could be challenged by the union in the courts and will test the expected administrator Mark Irving KC’s ability to turn around a union with deep-seated loyalties and a militant culture.
Only the Greens opposed the bill, which circumvents a CFMEU legal challenge to the Fair Work Commission’s attempt to push the union into administration under existing laws, with party leader Adam Bandt slamming the laws as “draconian”. Opposition workplace relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash , Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Simon Birmingham in Parliament House last night.“I have accepted what minister Watt has provided to me, if this is indeed not true, then that is a reflection on minister Watt,” she said.
Earlier on Monday, Senator Jacqui Lambie used parliamentary privilege to accuse major contractors of working with the CFMEU to engage in price fixing on government projects and allege that construction workers were being forced to join the union to work on them.“I have a very good source that construction workers are being compelled to join the CFMEU for an annual fee of $1200 as a condition for participating in Victorian Big Build projects,” she said.
Lambie called on the government to withhold money from projects if contractors continued to “turn a blind eye” to corruption on sites.
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