Wednesday, 14 August 2024

Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:57): (1056) My adjournment is for the Premier, and the action I seek is for the Premier to provide transparency and action to remove the organised criminal activity and criminals and bullies from taxpayer-funded worksites and also to address the very concerning issues regarding the involvement of the CFMEU in the Victorian building industry. Victorians have been subjected to enormous blowouts by this government, which are now in excess of $40 billion. The costs in the building industry have taken a chunk of this money. There have been underhanded, thuggish demands for more money to secure commercial building projects, particularly here in Victoria, and that means that our cost of living has been decimated in all areas – around health, education, roads, justice, child protection and housing and basically in the provision of everyday general services.

Prime construction companies on major projects quietly pass those extra costs onto investors or taxpayers knowing there is safety in numbers. Many smaller operators struggling to compete knew that they had no chance of survival if they did not concede to union demands onsite. Now this money that has been demanded by unsavoury characters within the CFMEU has impacted all of us as Victorians, and it has impacted our standard of living here. In the Age I note it says that:

The CFMEU assigned a senior Bandidos bikie enforcer to work as a union organiser on major Victorian government construction projects and to sit on the governing board of the John Setka-led union branch, a role he was allowed to keep even after he was charged over a violent assault.

We have record numbers of people mentioning bullying and intimidation, and I hate to think what might be going on now to keep some of those people silent.

Reports show that on Victorian building sites our project costs have jumped by a staggering 30 per cent since March 2020. According to the Age again, the Victorian government:

… is being advised on its industrial relations strategy by a senior manager … who is in a relationship with a high ranking CFMEU official being investigated by police for … corruption.

I could go on and on and on, and I will actually bring up some of these issues again when I have the opportunity to speak on it. The union needs to be answerable to the taxpayer. It is the taxpayer that has funded sites that we are talking about, and these exorbitant cost blowouts on major projects need to be regulated. The Liberals have proposed a royal commission, and we look forward to hearing from the Premier.