A Royal Commission and an independent investigation needed. FairWork is compromised.

The Australian Institute for Progress says that the sudden putting into “administration” of the CFMEU around the country is window dressing meant to get Labor off the hook for decades of collaboration with various unions which has encouraged violence and lawlessness.

AIP Executive Director Graham Young said the Labor Party in government has an insoluble conflict of interest because 50% of its party is owned by the union movement via union delegates, along with more than 50% of its parliamentarians being members of unions.

“This leads directly to the flourishing of unions like the CFMEU and governments favouring union interests over voter interests, and this compromises not just our industrial relations system but our total system of government as well.

”Until there is reform of industrial relations, and depoliticization of the union movement, corruption will flourish.

”We are calling for a royal commission to look specifically at the CFMEU, including its relationship with government. Given the government’s significant overlap with the union, this appointment would need to be bipartisan so electors could have confidence in its conclusions”

Mr Young said that the Labor Party is the party of the unions and denials from the Colonel Klinks in the government and the ACTU that they “knew nothing” should be laughed out of every media conference.

Here are just some lowlights of the ALP/CFMEU/ACTU et al collaboration at a Commonwealth level.

• The Australian Building and Construction Commission was abolished in February 2023. It ran actions against the CFMEU resulting in fines of $8.7 million and leading one judge to say the CFMEU were the "greatest recidivist offenders in Australian corporate history".
• The Registered Organisations Commission was abolished in June 2023.
• The powers of both were transferred to the Fair Work Commission, which has conspicuously failed to be effective, as shown by the crimes uncovered in Victoria.
• The Fair Work Commission has now been made the “administrator” of the CFMEU.
• Along with its failure to regulate the CFMEU the Fair Work Commission signed-off on an illegal wages deal between the CFMEU and several coal mining companies allowing casual contractors working on mines to be ripped off. This is currently the subject of a class action for “wage theft”.
• This year the government passed the so-called “Closing the Loopholes” Act, which overturns the reforms of the last 50 years to give unions unparalleled access to, and the ability to interfere in, workplaces.

In Queensland the lowlights include:

• Using the Best Practice Principles to mandate the use of union workers in government projects over $100 million which in practice means the CFMEU has a more or less monopoly not just over government projects, but the companies that tender for them. This adds somewhere around 30% to the cost of government projects with flow-on costs to the private sector.
• Allowing Gary Bullock of the United Workers Union to determine who the successor to Annastacia Palaszczuk would be.
• Passing legislation specifically to try to outlaw the Red Union, a rival, apolitical, union to the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union and the Queensland Teachers Union.
• Banning property developers from donating to political parties at the same time as allowing unions to spend up to $1 million each in state election campaigns. The CFMEU is still registered as a third party for the next state election, and will be able to be involved, even under administration. It is not registered as a third party so it can support the LNP, KAP, or One Nation!

“While we recognise that these current Labor state and federal governments will not act to deregulate the union movement, this should be the long-term aim for people who care about the working conditions of working Australians and the honesty of our political system.

“We also need to re-establish strong independent regulators like the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

“In the short term, any action to reform the CFMEU cannot be undertaken by FairWork which is compromised, and which in any case could have adverse findings against it from a fair and impartial investigator.

“As the government is also compromised in this mess because it is the political arm of the unions it cannot be trusted to appoint an investigator, which leads to the conclusion that a Royal Commission needs to be appointed on a bipartisan basis.”

For further information contact Graham Young on 0411 10 4 801 graham.young@aip.asn.au