Master Builders Tasmania - Return of ABCC
15 January 2016
Builders plead for return of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) in the wake of the Trade Union Royal Commission findings
BUILDERS PLEAD FOR RETURN OF WATCHDOG
Article published in The Mercury Newspaper - Friday 08.01.2016 (Nick Clark)
Master Builders Tasmania has called on Senator Jacqui Lambie to support the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission in the wake of the trade union royal commission findings.
Last week, royal commissioner Dyson Heydon said that “widespread misconduct …. Had taken place in every polity in Australia except for the Northern Territory.”
No details have emerged regarding Tasmania, sparking unions to label the process a political witch hunt.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the Government would reintroduce the ABCC legislation in the first sitting week of Parliament next month to “re-establish respect for the rule of law in the construction industry”, given the damning findings interstate.
The ABCC has the authority to investigate, enforce and prosecute potential braches of the Building and Construction Industry Act or the Fair Work Act in relation to the construction industry.
Rather than vote for the ABCC, Senator Lambie has in the past called for the deregistration of the CFMEU and is expected to maintain that stance in a YouTube release today. The Federal Government says the CFMEU’s impending amalgamation with the Maritime Union of Australia scuttles any attempt to deregister the CFMEU.
MBT Executive Director, Michael Kerschbaum said the ABCC – disbanded by the Labor Government in 2012 – would curb any excesses by the construction branch of the CFMEU. He said workplace health and safety had become a “Trojan horse” that enabled union officials to enter any building site.
CFMEU spokesman Richie Hassett could not be contacted last night.
Article by Nick Clark – The Mercury Newspaper 08.01.2016
