Adjournment
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (18:25): I move:
That the house do now adjourn.
Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union
Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:25): (1035) My adjournment is an action I call for from the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. Last week while walking around my electorate in Glen Waverley, I walked past a Suburban Rail Loop construction site and was astounded to see it was fully adorned with CFMEU flags everywhere, alongside the SRL branding. Community members were rightfully wondering how much of the SRL’s $7 billion blowout and how much of the state’s $40 billion blowout can be ascribed to the criminal practices of the CFMEU and the government’s complicity in those practices. Even the federal government is worried about the CFMEU. The workplace relations minister has announced a review into all CFMEU enterprise agreements connected to the Big Build, including for the SRL. We also know that the federal police have created their own investigation into the CFMEU. In fact there is such a number of concurrent inquiries now into the CFMEU you would have to wonder why they are not bundled up into a royal commission. Naturally that is the logical thing that should be done in this instance.
The corrupt and disgusting practices of brown paper bags and of onsite intimidation by the CFMEU have been writ large across every newspaper in the land, but the only people who do not seem to be reading those headlines and aware of them are the government themselves. We would like to see the government do something about it. The action I would ask of the minister is to provide an audit of how much of the SRL’s blowouts are a consequence of the CFMEU’s corrupt and illegal practices and commit to ensuring individuals with bikie gang organised crime affiliations are not allowed on taxpayer-funded sites. Finally, will the minister mandate that CFMEU flags no longer fly above state-funded sites?