Page 3382 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 22 August 2018
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and with organisations in our community. That is why it is so important that Mr Wall’s motion be passed today. It is appropriate that ACT Labor members of the Assembly suspend all affiliations with the CFMMEU. And there are many reasons why this should happen, not the least of which is the disproportionate power this organisation has over those opposite and, in turn, the disproportionate power it has over the ACT government. We have seen it time and time again through policies, through legislation and through sweetheart deals.
Of course, the most staggering of those sweetheart deals was the ACT government’s secret and scandalous purchase of the headquarters of the CFMEU in Dickson. The Tradies building was secretly sold to the ACT government for $4 million with a $1 per year leaseback. It is absolutely shocking. And the only reason I know about it, the only reason that Canberrans know about it, is because of an anonymous tip-off the opposition received. It was not because of due diligence; it was not because the ACT government went through a tender process or a procurement process; it was not even because they made an announcement that they had made this purchase.
They tried to keep the purchase a secret, and it was only when the opposition did a title search for that building that we discovered that the owner of the building was, in fact, the ACT government. It was the CFMEU. It was not the Dickson Tradies. It was the ACT government.
Flowing on from that title search we then obtained a contract for sale and saw the extraordinary amount of money that was paid secretly by the ACT government. What is more, the settlement occurred three days after contracts were exchanged. How many business deals or property deals in Canberra settle three days after contracts exchange? It just shows the great lengths this government will go to in order to appease their mates in the union movement.
The disappointing thing about all this is that there are many good, honest, hard-working people who belong to unions in Canberra—thousands in fact. They are let down by this government and they are let down by many of their union leaders that put themselves before the organisations. We have seen that time and time again. We see that with the secret deals the ACT government does in order to satisfy their mates in the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union.
On 16 August the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a media release that I will read into Hansard now. The title is: “Criminal cartel charges laid against CFMMEU and its ACT branch secretary.”
Criminal charges have been laid against the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU) and its ACT Divisional Branch Secretary, Jason O’Mara, in relation to alleged cartel conduct.
“The CFMMEU and Mr O’Mara are each charged with attempting to induce suppliers of steelfixing services and scaffolding services to reach cartel contracts, arrangements or understandings containing cartel provisions in relation to services provided to builders in the ACT in 2012 to 2013,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
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