Page 1317 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 April 2016
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the revelations of the MOU. The MBA also raised concerns that there is a three-way process that also involves a union tip-off and pay-off. It pointed out that there is significant money to be made. It stated:
In construction services the union has a direct commercial interest in who wins and who does not win government tenders. Their huge wealth and power has been built on forcing Canberra’s construction industry into the woefully anti-competitive pattern agreements that delivered $1.2 million in direct profits to the CFMEU ACT in 2013-14 alone.
It is the CFMEU who are the greatest beneficiary of the MOU signed by Andrew Barr and it is the CFMEU that have donated tens of thousands of dollars to ACT Labor, led by Andrew Barr and his Greens coalition colleague. It is the CFMEU members that hold senior positions in the Labor Party and carry massive factional power. The conflict of interest is extraordinary and it validates Jon Stanhope’s concerns.
There is a range of other business groups that have raised concerns including the Business Chamber. The Canberra Times commented :
The deal between the state government and UnionsACT just doesn’t smell right.
It made the point that:
… there are reports some organisers have brandished it to force people to sign enterprise bargaining agreements. If true, the allegations are telling evidence of the MOU’s real purpose: entrenchment of union power over employers by state writ. Long-standing it may be, but no amount of deflection or redirection will change that unsavoury fact.
The close linkages between the CFMEU and the Labor Party and their corrupting nature came to a head recently. The CPO of the ACT was allegedly asked by you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for a brief on ongoing investigations into the CFMEU. Sensitive police information about those ongoing police investigations was then passed from your office to the CFMEU.
Clearly upset, the Chief Police Officer took this directly to the Chief Minister, who had little choice but to invite you to stand down as well as your chief of staff. Subsequent investigations into the leak of this sensitive police material to the CFMEU by Labor backdoor channels did not eventuate in criminal prosecution but highlighted just how close and how inappropriate the relationship is between Labor ministers, Labor members, Labor government officials, Labor staffers and the CFMEU. It revealed also that there is other information that has been leaked to another party that we are not privy to.
This situation has resulted, in my strong view and that of others, in this government failing the integrity test. This is not an ethical government. Whilst this government is in receipt of pokie money and regulates that industry, while it has such a corrupting influence with the CFMEU, and while we have situations where ministers’ offices are leaking information, this cannot be considered an ethical government. (Time expired.)
Discussion concluded.
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