Doorstop, Parliament House Canberra

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

SUBJECTS: CFMEU legislation; Greens supporting CFMEU
 
MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: You would have seen last night, the Senate did pass Labor's bill to begin a process to put the construction division of the CFMEU into administration. This is a very important step forward, and today we expect the bill will be passed by the House of Representatives as well, to take that next step forward, to allow this administration process to begin. I think all Australians, including construction workers, have been very disturbed by the allegations we've seen of late, of organised crime and bikies infiltrating the construction division of the CFMEU and the wider construction industry. The passage of this legislation means that the days of organised crime and bikie influence in the CFMEU construction division and the wider industry are coming to an end. This is a very positive step forward for construction workers and it's a very positive step forward for Australians generally. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: When will you appoint the administrator? And are you expecting a fight in the courts if the CFMEU appeals it?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah look, I mean, I think anyone who knows the record of the CFMEU will recognise that they are very likely to try to find ways to legally challenge this. We have drafted this legislation in such a way to withstand as much legal challenge as we possibly can. But it wouldn't surprise me in the least if we see the CFMEU running off to court, as they often seem to do. In terms of the appointment of the administrator, there's a couple of steps we've got to go through under the legislation before we get there. So the way the legislation is drafted is that it allows me, as the Minister, to determine whether it's in the public interest to put the union's construction division into administration. And then it's actually the Fair Work Commission General Manager who would appoint the administrator under the legislation. Putting that all together, I'd certainly be hopeful that we can have this process underway by the end of the month. We've moved quickly to get this legislation passed and we want to keep moving quickly to get this administration process underway.

JOURNALIST: Is the choice of administrator in the hands of the Fair Work Commission as well?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah. So, as I say, the role of the Fair Work Commission General Manager to appoint the administrator. I think it's reasonable to expect that he will probably choose Mark Irving, given Mark Irving was the person who he had chosen to lead the administration under his original court application. Mark Irving is a senior counsel in the Melbourne industrial bar. He's a very experienced industrial barrister. He's actually been deeply involved in administrations of other unions in the past and on the right side of those issues. So I think he brings a lot of experience to the mix, and I expect that's the way it'll end up.

JOURNALIST: Earlier on Monday, Senator Jacqui Lambie used parliamentary privilege to accuse the major contractors of working with the CFMEU to engage in price fixing and government projects, alleging that construction workers being forced to join the union. Should government stop working with these firms, or should administrators stamp out these kinds of firms?

MURRAY WATT: One of the things that Mark Irving said in the letter that he wrote to me yesterday, which I provided to Senator Cash, was that one of his goals was to eliminate organised crime and corruption from the industry generally. And that corruption and organised crime doesn't just involve the union. Unfortunately, in some cases it seems to have involved employers as well. What I've said throughout this process is that we do need to make sure that just as we target bad behaviour in the union, we also target bad behaviour among employer groups. Now that we've got this legislation through, that's something that we can start giving a bit more attention to how we can address.

JOURNALIST: Just on the Greens saying that they haven't received any political donations from CFMEU, are you concerned that they'll try and receive donations from other unions kind of aligned or...

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I mean, I think most people know the Greens have been wandering around Parliament the last few days boasting of how, if Labor supports this legislation, they'll be able to take political advantage of that by getting donations from the CFMEU and other unions. I think it's absolutely disgraceful for the Greens to be putting their own financial and political interests ahead of those in Australia wanting to see clean and safe workplaces in construction sites. That's what the Greens have done. They're now making desperate attempts to try to dress up the reasons why they voted against that legislation yesterday when it's all about them trying to secure their political and financial advantage. You will have seen yesterday in the Senate, a motion was passed, supported by both the Coalition and Labor, that called for the Greens to rule out taking donations from the CFMEU. They voted against that motion. It's pretty clear that the Greens are all about the money and political advantage, rather than actually cracking down and cleaning up the CFMEU construction division.