The CFMEU refused to accept an administrator and began delaying developments through court action. Photo: CFMEU.
The Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union will be forced to accept an administrator following a deal struck between the Federal Government and the Opposition.
While the outcome is good, it was reached by clever tactics and hardball politics from the Coalition, much to the chagrin of the Greens, who were cut out of the action completely.
The government introduced legislation to appoint an administrator to the construction arm of the union after the CFMEU refused to accept one voluntarily and began delaying developments through court action.
But Labor’s bill was itself delayed last week when the Coalition and the Greens – for different reasons – thwarted attempts to force a vote on the issue.
The Greens suggested the legislation was going too far and wanted more scrutiny, but the Coalition said the bill wasn’t going far enough and sought a string of amendments.
With the parliamentary week beginning on Monday (18 August) with a stalemate over the CFMEU, the Coalition tried to focus the debate on the Greens and the possibility of the minor party accepting donations from the union.
That move saw the government align with the Opposition, and after further public debate and backroom negotiations, an agreement was reached by the end of the day. The bill passed in the Senate Monday night.
Shadow industrial relations minister Michaelia Cash announced at around 4 pm that the Coalition had secured concessions from Labor and was now prepared to support the government’s bill.
Last week, the Coalition had a claim of 20 demands in order to agree to the bill, with the government rejecting three of them.
The big one was the Coalition insisting that the administration period for the CFMEU should be set at a minimum, rather than a maximum, of three years.
Labor was also forced to fold on other Opposition demands if it wanted the bill to pass.
They included that the administrator reports twice yearly to the parliament, with the Fair Work Australia general manager to appear before Senate Estimates to be grilled on the administration.
The CFMEU will also be banned from making political expenditures and giving any political donations during its administration period.
Senator Cash said the Coalition had been given a letter outlining the administrator’s priority to ensure that political spending was blocked.
“We are now in a position to provide passage,” Senator Cash said.
“The government rushed this legislation into the parliament without adequate consultation and was dragged kicking and screaming to make sensible changes suggested by the Coalition.
“But this is only the start of the process of controlling the rogue union and cleaning up the construction sector in Australia.”
Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt later confirmed that the government had the numbers to secure passage of the bill and said it was the strongest action any government had taken against rogue elements of a union.
“We have agreed to some minor amendments that will preserve the internet of the bill itself,” Senator Watt said.
“We, of course, could have passed this legislation last week, and many of the things the Coalition agreed to today were actually on the table last week.”
For their part, the Greens are outraged that their leverage on the issue was made redundant.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge, during a subsequent media interview, said the party was concerned about the precedent being set.
“We were always concerned, and we remain concerned about precedent, but when you see the Coalition and Labor joining together like this, it is pretty clear they had done the deal before they bought the motion this morning,” he said.
“But we had that sense from last week, we were trying to reach out and work out a bunch of principles to try and limit the precedent.
“We haven’t received a dollar from the CFMEU for a decade. The Coalition received $175,000 in the last two years, and Labor has received millions of dollars, but what we say is we have not received the money. It is not why we are engaged in the debate.
“In fact, Labor and the Coalition made it about the money when it has never been a concern.
“It has not been our concern. Our concern is about the deep principles about what should the Federal Parliament do, what powers should you give a politician.”
Laws to grant ministerial power to place the construction arm of the CFMEU into administration are now to be introduced due to the allegations of bullying, intimidation and criminal behaviour by some CFMEU officials.
The legislation followed the allegations being aired in recent media reports, sparking the government to take action against the union.
A number of Labor state and federal governments acted swiftly to suspend the party’s affiliation with the construction division of the union and to expel some members.
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