By David Crowe and Angus Thompson
Former union leader Bill Kelty has backed the case for federal action to clean up the CFMEU and cut ties to organised crime and motorcycle gangs, after growing signs of rebellion from union chiefs who want to block the moves.
And Malcolm Turnbull, who staked his prime ministership on legislating the controversial Australian Building and Corruption Commission in 2016, has backed the case for the industry watchdog’s return, saying the body should’ve been strengthened by Labor instead of abolished.
Former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty has supported an overhaul of the CFMEU.Credit: Justin McManus
In a powerful statement on the need for change, Kelty, a former ACTU secretary and leading light of the union movement, said CFMEU members had nothing to fear from an independent and fair overhaul by an external administrator who could return the union to the core purpose of protecting workers.
But he dismissed a call from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for the deregistration of the CFMEU, saying the idea would create an informal union without fixing the problems.
“It’s a delusion. It sounds simple, but it’s nonsense,” Kelty said of the Coalition proposal.
While Dutton has called on the government to copy the federal move in 1986 to deregister the Builders Labourers Federation because of corruption in its ranks, Kelty said many of the BLF officials were tough negotiators but not corrupt.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Employment Minister Tony Burke have rejected the parallel with the BLF on the ground that workplace law has changed since the 1980s, and deregistration would not work in the same way against the CFMEU.
Burke has asked government officials to prepare a draft law to be put to parliament early next month if it is needed to overcome union objections to the federal plan to apply to the Federal Court to appoint an external administrator to run CFMEU branches.
Burke has also dismissed opposition calls for the revival of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which Labor abolished in 2022, saying the watchdog had allowed the union’s most extreme figures to rise by “pushing people into their corner”.
Turnbull, who as prime minister went to a double-dissolution election over the bill to bring back the industry watchdog in 2016, said while it was OK to question the commission’s performance, “the answer to that would be not to abolish it, but to improve it, to give it more effective powers, or perhaps appoint more capable people”.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull wants the Australian Building and Construction Commission revived.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“My government did not go to considerable political troubles to reinstate the ABCC as a gesture,” Turnbull said, adding that he said at the time union misconduct helped inflate the cost of construction. “I’m sure you could give exactly the same speech today.”
He said that with the benefit of hindsight, the Coalition had been right to bring back the watchdog in 2016, adding Labor now had “100 per cent of the responsibility to sort this out”.
“They can’t say, you can’t say, ‘gosh, we never knew this was an issue’. I mean, this was the whole reason the ABCC was set up, was to address this issue,” Turnbull said.
A clean-out of the CFMEU is under way, with more than 20 members of the union being stood down from the Victorian branch after days of revelations from an investigation by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes into the union’s ties to organised crime.
But CFMEU Queensland secretary Michael Ravbar said Albanese had “soiled himself” over the corruption allegations, and the NSW branch of the union vowed to defend itself against the moves.
Kelty, speaking to this masthead on Saturday, would not comment on individuals and made no assertions about criminal behaviour but said the move to overhaul the CFMEU was justified by the need to protect the interests of ordinary members.
Kelty was the secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1983 to 2000, a member of the Reserve Bank board between 1987 and 1996, and a key figure in the Prices and Incomes Accord between the union movement and the federal government after Bob Hawke led Labor to victory at the 1983 election.
Writing on Monday, the renowned union leader backed the move to suspend the CFMEU from the ACTU.
“Any union official should know that the union is more important than they are. It is, after all, a custodian position of care and responsibility,” Kelty writes.
“There is no place for criminals or bikies in unions, and for that reason, it is imperative there be an independent and fair assessment of the accusations.”
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