Mr HAMILTON (Groom) (19:08): This evening I’m going to speak on the very topical issue of the CFMEU. I had hoped to add my contribution to the debate this evening, but, sadly, the government saw fit to gag that particular debate. I’m not saying I have some particularly great view, but I think there’s something I can add to this.
I will tell a story. This is my introduction to unionism; it is a family story. My great-grandfather ran a sheep run down near Delungra, in northern New South Wales. He was in his 40s when one of the last sheep shearer strikes occurred on his property. There is a limited period in which you can do that; I’m sure the member for O’Connor is very aware of the restrictions that come with this. When a strike takes place on your run, it’s quite a thing. My great-grandfather, Claude Henry Everard Hamilton, decided that shearing work needed to be done, so he went and did it. While he was doing it, the striking members of that particular union set upon him and beat him up. When he got up from that, he went back to shearing. He used to pass on a very clear message to us: ‘There may well be strength in the union, but there is a hell of a lot more strength in the individuals who stand up to them.’ I say that loudly and proudly to anyone who has experienced the thuggery, intimidation, misogyny and outright violence that has been described by the CFMEU.
To be completely fair, I want to talk about the full breadth of my experiences with unions as well. I’ve had the good pleasure of running mining and construction sites in Australia and around the world. I’ve been there in situations where people working for me have been injured. I’ve been in that first responder situation with the guy working for me, and sitting side-by-side with me was the union representative. A genuine level of care was being demonstrated. They were reaching out and making sure the family were okay and were contacted. I’ve been in reviews of fatalities on sites. I’m thinking particularly of one terrible one at the Ranger Uranium Mine, where a practice may well have been unsafe and needed review. We went through and sat side-by-side with union representatives, and, with their combined expertise of the workplace, they made a valuable contribution to that investigation.
I think it’s important to say this. I experienced growing up on those sites. I was first on a construction site at the age of eight. I’ve been standing and working side-by-side with union members for a hell of a long time. If you’re genuinely looking after vulnerable workers, that’s God’s work. I think there’s a history in Australia that we can look back to and reflect on with some pride. I make that contribution because it’s fair to look at the full scope of unionism in Australia and its history. I think it’s very important to point out the behaviour of the CFMEU and say just how entirely unacceptable it has been to the Australian people and people working on construction and mining sites—whatever it may be around the country. What we’ve seen is completely against the Australian way of life.
I’ll go through a brief history of this. What we saw and the incidents of intimidation and violence I talk about have not been one-offs. Sadly, if we look at a timeline of CFMEU activity, this has been a prolonged experience that many people, like my great-grandfather, who chose to stand up to them, have suffered. These aren’t just accusations. This has been played out and reported in the media, here and in our courts. Prosecutions have been made. Fines have been paid. We know this has happened. This is clear. The evidence is there; it has happened. But what was happening also through that period was that the CFMEU was making continuous donations to the Labor Party. They were intricately involved in determinations not just on policy but on who Labor’s elected representatives would be. They were playing a leading role in determining the shape and future of the Labor Party all through this period. The Labor Party took their donations and were shaped.
All that time, members from the Liberal and National coalition have been calling this behaviour out. On one hand, we have this unacceptable, thuggish, violent behaviour taking place, and on the other hand we have a Labor Party turning a blind eye whilst receiving donations. That has been going on for decades as this has gone through this place here. People have stood up and called this out. They’ve done it in state parliaments and in courthouses right throughout Australia. No-one can deny this. But then, suddenly, something happens in July. It’s something so unacceptable to the Australian populace that, finally, members of the Labor Party feel free to speak out. There were accusations of high-level bikies and organised crime having gotten their hands all over CFMEU leadership. This became unacceptable. At that point, we were supposed to believe Labor’s claim that they had no idea. Everything that had happened was news to them. Suddenly, the scales have fallen from their eyes, and they see that this cancerous body now is a problem, and they’re going to stand up to it. To claim ignorance over that period defies logic and belief. But they came to parliament with a bill and told us that they were taking a tough stance. They demanded that we must absolutely support this bill no matter what. We were told that every day we now delayed this bill, we would somehow be the cause of further suffering, harm, violence and threats on workplaces throughout Australia. That was somehow supposed to be on us.
After decades of Labor ignoring the issues and taking their millions of dollars of donations, somehow these days are now upon us. Labor took such a tough stance on this that not a single Labor member rose to speak on the bill—not a single one! That’s how tough their stance was. Not a single Labor member rose to speak on it, and you’ve got to ask why. I would be a cynic if I said that it was because they didn’t want to incriminate themselves and expose their links and knowledge of what had been going on previously. But maybe the reason they didn’t want to speak was the words on John Setka’s tattoo: ‘God forgives. The CFMEU doesn’t.’ Maybe they didn’t want to incur the future wrath of the CFMEU. Maybe they didn’t want to say things that would one day get them disendorsed or cause donation dollars to be pulled. They didn’t want to see it somehow play out against them—maybe that’s the reason they chose not to speak.
There was a line-up of LNP speakers who wanted to speak and raise the concerns that have been brought to us by constituents in each of our electorates. I’ve got a thriving construction sector in my electorate, and every single business in that sector has raised these issues with me over and over again. Turn on the TV and you’ll see what’s happening in Queensland at the moment. The CFMEU’s behaviour has been caught on camera multiple times. They’re at war with AWU. What’s playing out in Brisbane at the moment is absolutely unforgiveable. Look at what’s playing out in the construction sector. I would ask anyone involved in this sector: are you better off since Labor came to government? Of course we’re not. This lawlessness and rampant violence has made the sector worse.
The point is that we are not here by accident. The situation we find ourselves and Australia’s construction industry in is not one that has happened by accident; it has happened by design. The policies the Labor government have deliberately enacted—specifically, the immediate abolition of the ABCC upon coming to government—are now playing out. It was the one body that was the watchdog of the construction industry. The body that was there to keep an eye on these unions and their behaviour was abolished. And what happened? Unions ran away with their power, and we find ourselves in the situation we are now. Things have got worse.
Where we are is no accident. We had a bill put on the table that required 20 amendments to get bipartisan support. What a damning indictment of this government’s failure to address the CFMEU’s unlawfulness.
