Mr RANDALL (6:32 PM) —It is a pleasure to be able to speak this evening to the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Bill 2003 and the Building and Construction Industry Improvement (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2003. It is interesting to follow one of the industrial relations dinosaurs of this House, the member for Throsby, a former ACTU president. The House is a retirement village for ACTU presidents. We have the member for Batman, the member for Hotham, the member for Throsby and we had the former member for Wills, Bob Hawke. What do you do when you retire from the ACTU presidency? The union give you a sinecure here because it is better than any retirement they can give you. So why would they not support this legislation? Because they cannot. They are wedded to union industry so tightly that, if they come down here and work against the union movement, their preselections will be up for grabs.

But let us look to the meat of the bills first before we get into the interesting little nuances in terms of the members and the reasons why they cannot do anything but oppose this legislation. These bills are designed to introduce specific workplace relations and occupational health and safety regulations for the Australian building and construction industry by establishing an Australian building and construction commissioner—ABCC, for later reference—and a federal safety commissioner. These bills will also alter the bargaining framework by focusing on genuine bargaining at the enterprise level, restricting pattern bargaining and providing for mandatory cooling-off periods, during which protected industrial action is not permitted.

It will make unlawful all industrial action within constitutional limits other than protected industrial action, with industry participants able to recover any losses they suffer due to unlawful action. It will strengthen freedom of association provisions so that a wider range of behaviour identified by the royal commission is effectively dealt with. It will amend the right of entry system to clearly spell out the parties' rights and responsibilities. It will limit the scope for state law to be used to circumvent federal requirements. It will ensure that registered organisations are accountable for the actions of their officials and employees, and it will strengthen the compliance regime by increasing penalties and increasing access to damages for unlawful conduct.

The Cole royal commission was a landmark hearing into something that had been required in the Australian construction and building industry. Such a hearing had been wanted for years, and it was desperately needed by those involved in the industry—business and workers. One of the great myths here is that the opposition talk about workers' rights—that is very important—but how about the right to work, which this legislation will address?

The Cole royal commission report is an extensive document; it goes to 23 volumes, including the Little Red Book—which will eventually determine who needs to have further examination under our legal system. The Cole royal commission came up with 212 recommendations, and this government has met and decided that it would implement 120 of those recommendations—and this is what the bills are designed to do. It is very important that this legislation is passed. It is very important for the future of Australia, the welfare of Australia, its work force and, in particular, its construction industry. We are talking about a $60 billion industry, which cannot go on unchecked, which is its current state.

As I said, there are 23 volumes and associated information in the report. As a member from Western Australia, I will talk about the Western Australian climate in terms of the building industry, the evidence from the Cole royal commission and the reason that this legislation needs to be enacted. Western Australia is almost considered to be the heart of darkness in terms of this industry because of a historic event that occurred when Brian Burke was premier. The BLF was out of control and was deregistered around Australia, expect in Western Australia. `Burkey' looked after his mate Norm Gallagher; he made sure that Norm did not get deregistered in Western Australia. The BLF's resurrection as the CFMEU in Western Australia has festered and become a pus on the work force body over there. As a result, it has gotten away with absolute wanton damage to an industry which provides so many jobs to so many people.

As has been stated by others in this House, if these reforms were to come through there would actually be an economic boon for this country because they would add something like $23 billion in economic benefits to the workers and the industries of this country. So it is very important that it happens. Interestingly, the royal commission says:

There are volumes of quotes that I could note here, but I wish to focus on Western Australia. As the commissioner said, `In Western Australia, the rule of law has little or no currency in the building and construction industry.' A differentiation needs to be made between the domestic building industry and the commercial building industry in Western Australia. We have a very buoyant, very vibrant domestic building industry in Western Australia, and it is going ahead in leaps and bounds in the current climate which is fostered by this government. But the commercial building industry, particularly in the CBD of Perth, is rotten to the core.

Interestingly, the CFMEU in Western Australia, which has been identified as a main culprit by the Cole royal commission, has a slogan on its building sites in Perth which says, `We build this city.' It is amazing, because nobody else is allowed in—so of course they build the city. But at what cost? `We build this city because we are not letting anyone else in.' That is the whole problem. The `no ticket, no start' workplaces in Western Australia are an absolute disgrace, and the Premier, Geoff Gallop, is complicit in this. He sits in his office—and he can see down St George's Terrace in Perth—and there are signs all over the place which say `no ticket, no start'. He knows it is illegal and he somehow, some way, justifies the signs staying up there, illegal as they are. What does this do for the small subcontractor who does not want to belong to a union? We talk about freedom of association; he cannot go on those sites. He cannot go and do his business because `no ticket, no start' is alive and well in Western Australia.

The report of the Cole royal commission said that the size of the building industry in Western Australia is something like 11 per cent of the national industry. However, it also says that the rate of industrial disputation in the industry in Western Australia is far greater than 11 per cent. So Western Australia punches above its weight in terms of industrial anarchy; and Western Australia runs second only to Victoria in amount of disruption. In other states—for example, South Australia—there is little disputation. The real culprits in this are Victoria, one, and Western Australia, two. It is an absolute disgrace that this is allowed to happen.

Large building contractors from my state say to me, `We've been caught up in this, and your government wants us to abide by the rule of law and not get involved in casual tickets and illegal arrangements. But we are the meat in the sandwich. If we do not do this sort of arrangement, we get black-listed. We do not get contracts.' One only has to see what happened recently with a company called BGC in Western Australia—a company associated with a gentleman named Len Buckridge. He went to the Cole royal commission and gave evidence, and what happened? His mate, Tom Stephens, who was minister for housing, decided that he would not get contracts over a certain value. He was actually using some federal money to do this, and we did not like it. We made it very clear to the Premier and to Tom Stephens what would happen if he used this punitive measure for somebody who gave information to the Cole royal commission. Ultimately, through legal action and through pressure by media—and I congratulate the media for being onto this—and through members in this House and Cheryl Edwardes, the opposition spokesperson for industrial relations in Western Australia, it was overturned. Tom Stephens lost his job; he lost that part of his portfolio and was disgraced because punitive action was taken against somebody who had given information to the Cole royal commission.

This is the sort of thing that happens if you take on the CFMEU in Western Australia. We know that there are many good unions in Western Australia—the AMWU, et cetera—who get on with their job, provide a service to their workers, and ultimately benefit the work force that they represent. But not the CFMEU. Their state secretary, Joe Bullock, says, `We do this because we are a militant union.' What sort of a justification is that? `We are a militant union so we can do what we like. We can be bovver boys and thugs and justify it.' It is unbelievable that the main characters in this can get away with what is tantamount to anarchy, as I have already described. We only need to go to the Western Australian section of the Cole royal commission to find some prime examples. As well as stating that the rule of law in Western Australia has no currency, the report states that the CFMEU is involved in inappropriate conduct and that there is a culture of fear and intimidation. It also says:

The report also states that the CFMEU organises unlawful strikes and threats of strikes and that the risk of injury is significant because the CFMEU is more interested in its own control than in representing its workers.

When you look at a few examples from that royal commission—for example, the Blue Water Apartments project case—you see the same names cropping up: Kevin Reynolds, the WA branch secretary of the CFMEU; and Joe McDonald, the WA assistant branch secretary. Then there are luminaries like Cam McDonald, Graham Pallott and Darren Smith. They end up in all of these. For example, when you look at the Doric Group Holdings case, it says, `Finding against Joe McDonald and Graham Pallott.' If we look further, for the Graham Farmer Freeway and Kwinana Freeway civil construction projects we find the same thing. Who were involved? Joe McDonald and Pallott again. The same names keep coming up.

The interesting part about all this is that these men are luminaries in this industry in the state and they have done very well from being the heads of this rogue organisation. These are people who share a partnership in hotels with major builders. These are people who race expensive race horses. These are people who go overseas not at their own expense. There are pay-offs from the builders for industrial peace. Girls are organised for them in Bali when they get over there. That is all part of the package deal. Why wouldn't you pay for a few titillating side bits like that just to get industrial harmony? At the end of the day, this is what you are dealing with in Western Australia. It is an absolute disgrace and that is why this legislation is needed.

The Cole royal commission did extensive examinations into Western Australia. The major builder in Western Australia is Multiplex. I know John Roberts and members of his family quite well. I am quite surprised that Multiplex did not get any more mention in this royal commission than it got. It is the major builder over there, and the no ticket, no start provisions are the biggest on their sites. That is done in conjunction with the CFMEU, largely, and its operatives, such as Joe McDonald and Kevin Reynolds. They buy industrial peace this way and by inducements et cetera.

As a result, I cannot believe that Multiplex was not further scrutinised, particularly in Western Australia, which is its birthplace. The royal commission erred in that respect, if I can be a little critical of it. It did not look closely enough into the activities of that company. It looked into everybody else's but not closely enough into Multiplex's.

Why does there have to be a building industry commission? The fact is that in Western Australia under the previous state coalition government they had a very good building inspectorate—a prime example of one—which was loosely termed the `keirath cops'. There were only three members of that task force. They were able to go onto industrial sites and examine any terms, threats, intimidations, unlawful entries, inducements et cetera. It did not really gain teeth until the head of that task force was given special powers as a constable in conjunction with the state police. Once the ability to lay charges—along with the proper criminal sanctions—was given to that task force, industrial peace featured on the Western Australian landscape far more than it had ever done. In fact, it is stated in the Cole report that the inspectorate's stopping of intimidation, extortion and other illegal and improper conduct on building sites was quite successful. It maintained good relationships with WorkSafe Western Australia on the safety aspect of construction sites and established a reputation as a very efficient and successful agency. This was attributed to the fact that it vigorously enforced the law, and industry participants became increasingly aware that if they breached the law they would be charged and prosecuted.

There was a change of government. What happened? Along came the Labor government, which disbanded that task force that had been running since 1994 and put their own in. However, the state Labor government have now established a building industry inspectorate, later known as the building industry special projects inspectorate. It has no teeth. It is not doing anything on industrial work sites. It is not enforcing the rule of law. It is a lackey to the Labor government. They have a weak industrial workplace relations minister in the form of John Kobelke and a compliant government. As we know, the Labor Party are so closely wedded to this form of the union movement that they cannot and will not stand up against them.

So basically the building industry in Western Australia has gone backwards since the change of government because they have a toothless tiger as an inspectorate. That is why the Commonwealth building and construction commission needs legislative power. If it does not have legislative power to do what it is entitled to do under this bill, it will also be a toothless tiger.

One of the problems is that the judiciary is almost complicit in this. If you were to use this kind of extortion and thuggery as a member of the Mafia, you would be charged and locked up. But for some reason the courts see industrial anarchy in the union movement and on building sites as something of a lesser evil when these people come before the courts. For example, Joe McDonald, who escaped police custody and ran back to the work force still in handcuffs, was fined $500. He even joked about it and said that was `folding money in the back of his pocket'. You need teeth in these operations to see that things happen.

I know the Labor Party will not support this because they will not support anything that will require them to stand up to their union mates. The Greens certainly will not. I appeal to the Democrats—and Andrew Murray in particular as a Western Australian senator—to help clean up this industry. I know that people like Kari Rummakainen from Broad Construction Services have been to see Senator Murray because without his support this legislation will not pass and the industry will not be cleaned up. For the betterment of Australia, our industry and our workers we need the support of the Democrats. We need to pass this legislation for all the people of Australia and the national interest generally.