Doorstop interview - Parliament House, Canberra

E&OE Transcript 

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: So, today is D-Day for the CFMEU administration bill. It's been a couple of weeks now that we flagged that this legislation would be introduced and today is the day for the Coalition and the Greens to get behind this bill to enable me to begin a process to put the CFMEU construction division into administration. I cannot understand the constant delay that we're seeing from the Coalition and the Greens. This is a clear cut matter. The evidence is very clear that we need to have a process to appoint an administrator to the CFMEU construction division and the Coalition and the Greens have the opportunity to do that today. Michaelia Cash was in the media yesterday agreeing that we need to pass this legislation today. She has the power to do that, and she should do that today. The Greens, I cannot understand how they would be able to explain to their voters why they're deciding to take the side of John Setka and some of the organised criminals who've been flourishing in the industry rather than backing this bill. So, I very much hope that we do get the support of the Coalition and the Greens to get this done today.

JOURNALIST: The Coalition says that they want a short, sharp review. Why are you so opposed to a review?

MURRAY WATT: My understanding is that the Coalition has walked away from that, and they accept that there's no longer a need for a Senate inquiry to occur. I know that employer groups have been putting a lot of pressure on the Coalition and pleading with them to pass this bill this week. I would have thought the Coalition would be interested in the views of those employer groups and would join us to get this bill done this week.

JOURNALIST: Generally, forcing a bill through Parliament isn't necessarily received very well. Do you think that this is the right way to go about it?

MURRAY WATT: Absolutely. I think the Australian public is sick and tired of the constant revelations they continue to see about the construction division of the CFMEU. The Australian public wants action, the Labor Government wants action and we hope today that we see action from the Coalition and the Greens.

JOURNALIST: Are you confident in the current settings that we have in place to protect our national security?

MURRAY WATT: I am, because I'm very confident about our security agencies. We've seen Peter Dutton and the Coalition effectively put a vote of no confidence in our security agencies over the last couple of days. The processes and policies that are used by our security agencies to vet visas are exactly the same as they were when Peter Dutton was the Minister. Why were those processes ok when he was the Minister and not ok now? It's just cheap politics from Peter Dutton. Only on the weekend we saw the Director General of ASIO, effectively warning politicians that we need to be careful in what we say and what we do around social cohesion. And within three days, we've seen Peter Dutton go and thumb his nose at the DG of ASIO and try to score a cheap political point rather than actually listening to that advice about trying to tone down our language and keep the community together. These are the kind of things that Peter Dutton is prepared to do. He's prepared to put Australians safety at risk and our social cohesion at risk, just to score a cheap political point. And that demonstrates he is not fit to be Prime Minister.