Murray Watt says deregistering union’s construction division would jeopardise ongoing investigations and that new US-style laws are unnecessary
The Labor government has rubbished Peter Dutton’s demands to immediately deregister the construction division of the CFMEU when parliament resumes next week, claiming the Coalition’s proposed policy would jeopardise ongoing investigations and hand back control of the union to criminal elements.
The opposition leader said a Coalition government would re-establish the building industry watchdog and institute US-inspired laws against racketeering and “mafia-style” tactics. His announcement followed further allegations of misconduct, corruption and violence towards women in the construction industry, detailed by 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Vision showing a woman being bashed by a bikie-linked health and safety representative on his lunch break from a government-funded project was “horrifying”, the federal women’s minister, Katy Gallagher, said.
The federal industrial relations minister, Murray Watt, was referring the CFMEU-linked allegations aired in the program to police for investigation. The CFMEU’s construction division was forced into administration by the Albanese government last year, following claims of bikie and organised crime figures infiltrating the union and other allegations of serious criminal activity.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, on Monday announced the creation of a police taskforce, dubbed Operation Hawk, to examine new allegations and focus on reports of organised crime and criminal behaviour on Victorian worksites. Allan called the latest allegations “shocking and completely unacceptable”.
Later on Monday, however, Victoria police said Operation Hawk had already been in operation, with a “newly-expanded” operation following the fresh allegations.
“The behaviour is of such concern to police that we have deployed additional detectives to help assess new intelligence and evidence as well as proactively target organised crime associated with the construction industry,” the Victoria police spokesperson said.
Detectives from the financial crime squad, working in the operation, had conducted extensive assessments of more than 55 separate reports to police, the spokesperson said.
“Operation Hawk is led by Victoria Police which works closely with a number of other agencies including the Australian Federal Police, Fair Work Commission and Fair Work Ombudsman.
“Victoria Police has conducted proactive assessments into a range of allegations to determine whether criminal offences have occurred.”
The state’s industrial relations minister, Jaclyn Symes, said legislation to create a complaints body – as recommended by a review last year – was “imminent”. But Geoffrey Watson SC, appointed by the independent union administrator Mark Irving to investigate alleged wrongdoing, called the Victorian review “hopeless” and accused the state Labor government of a cover-up.
“It was, I’m afraid, a terrible disappointment. It operates as a cover-up because it didn’t get to the bottom of anything,” Watson told 60 Minutes.
Dutton on Monday said, if elected, the Coalition would pursue laws based on the US Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act, which targets mafia and organised crime activity. The opposition leader said such laws were needed so that “bosses and kingpins of groups such as outlaw motorcycle gangs can be jailed even if they distance themselves from the crimes their organisations commit”.
“The latest disturbing revelations about the CFMEU’s links with organised crime confirm that urgent action is required to confront this militant and corrupt organisation head on,” Dutton said.
“The CFMEU’s behaviour is driving up the cost of residential and commercial housing in Australia.”
The Coalition also announced a plan to set up a federal police-led taskforce on corruption and crime in construction. Dutton urged the government to use parliament’s resumption next week to reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission and deregister the construction division of the CFMEU – and said the Coalition would take that action if Labor did not.
“Bob Hawke had the courage and conviction to deregister the Builders Labourers Federation and Anthony Albanese should follow his strong lead and do the same with the CFMEU,” Dutton said.
The government had strongly opposed deregistering as an option. The former employment minister Tony Burke said in August that doing so would enable those accused of wrongdoing to continue with their “entire business model … with no layer of regulation or additional oversight that applies to registered organisations”.
Watt on Monday claimed Dutton’s plan “would hand control of the union back to the very criminals we are beginning to remove”. He claimed deregistering the union would end its administration and ongoing independent investigations. He credited Irving for uncovering the “unacceptable conduct”.
“Deregistering the union would allow it to operate without ANY regulation, with the worst elements free to run rampant on construction sites again,” Watt said on social media.
“Now the administrator is beginning to clean up the union, and police have established active operations with state police forces and are conducting raids, Peter Dutton wants to recklessly close it all down.”
Watt also rejected the Coalition’s call for the “Rico-style” laws, saying relevant laws already existed in Australia.
“We don’t need to import an American racketeering law – we already have our own laws to go after ‘kingpins’, such as section 390.6 of the criminal code, which already deals with directing criminal organisation,” he said.
– with Australian Associated Press