Subjects: CFMEU caught out on crime and corruption; CFMEU and Labor ripping off Australians; the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership; Fortescue cuts to green hydrogen jobs; Labor’s energy policy shambles; pets.
E&OE
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Well, criminals, corruption and a dark web of power. The CFMEU has this week faced a reckoning with the Government calling in an administrator and cutting ties with the Union’s Victorian branch. Let’s bring in Bill Shorten, who joins us live in Melbourne, and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who joins us from Brissie.
‘Morning guys. Nice to see you. Bill, you’re first up. Did you seriously have no idea the CFMEU, their house was in such bad order?
BILL SHORTEN:
No, I’m not a policeman. I don’t get the chance to electronically listen to private transactions. But there’s no doubt that the Government has acted. The revelations this week were news, but I tell you what, we’ve acted. The administrator will straighten out, and there is no doubt though in my mind, that the CFMEU, this is not just a couple of rotten apples, that they have developed a culture of allowing themselves to be infiltrated by elements of organised crime. That is a betrayal of construction workers and all of the many millions of Australians who belong to unions and thousands of union reps who are honest and do the right thing.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Can you guarantee the money received from the CFMEU in Labor Party donations is aboveboard? Will you pay it back?
BILL SHORTEN:
We’ve said that we’re suspending all donations from the CFMEU. In fact, we’ve suspended the CFMEU from the Labor Party.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Will you pay the donations back?
BILL SHORTEN:
The last donations were over two years ago. We’ve taken the action to stop any financial relations with the CFMEU…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay, Pete?
BILL SHORTEN:
…Full stop and just to view – oh, go on.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
No, go on. Sorry.
BILL SHORTEN:
Just to viewers: we want to be really clear here. I don’t believe this is how most trade unions operate, but there is a problem in the CFMEU and that can only be sorted out by having an independent administrator investigate all the proceedings that are going on there. No union – I mean, the power of unions is that they can take industrial action, but the idea that someone would be taking industrial action in procurement of personal benefit or criminal activity is an abhorrence and needs to be stamped out.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Peter – Labor is, as Bill mentioned, appointing an independent administrator, if you win government, will you re-establish the workplace regulator? I mean the first time round it didn’t really have any teeth.
PETER DUTTON:
Certainly we will, Karl. In fact, we’ll reintroduce that legislation for the building construction watchdog when we go back to Parliament in August. We hope the Government can support it because they abolished it at the request of the CFMEU. And as Bill, reluctantly says, $10 million has been donated by the CFMEU to the Labor Party. It’s a corrupt organisation. It’s corrupt to the core. That Bill Shorten and Tony Burke and Anthony Albanese are running around saying, ‘we didn’t know anything about this, we didn’t know the bikies had infiltrated the CFMEU’, it’s a complete nonsense. It’s not believable. It’s been made public for a number of years.
The problem is that the taxpayers who are working their guts out at the moment just to keep their head above water, their taxes are paying for this sort of behaviour because there’s a 30 per cent premium on every time the Government pays for a road to be constructed, or a tunnel to be built, or a school, or a hospital to be built. So Australian taxpayers are being ripped off in a way – I think this is the biggest rip off of taxpayers in our history.
To appoint an administrator is the weakest possible path that Anthony Albanese could have taken. It should be deregistered. And as Bill rightly points out, the conduct of this union tarnishes the reputation of other unions. Bills union, the AWU is actually a good union and they’re being tarnished by the actions of this corrupt union. They should be stamped out and the Prime Minister should show some backbone.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Bill, why didn’t the Prime Minister man up and deregister?
BILL SHORTEN:
Well with respect to Pete, deregistration would just see the creation of a whole lot of mini CFMEUs, and so you would be right where you started. Only an administrator can get to the bottom of making sure that they’re the people who seek to be offices of that union, are honest and fit and proper people.
But Pete says, ‘oh, you know’ – breathlessly – ‘oh, the Government, you know, knew about all this stuff’. Well, you know, Peter Dutton’s Party when they were in Government, they had a royal commission. I was there. They called me for two whole days.
The point is, they didn’t even send an angry tweet to the Victorian branch, or the Queensland branch of the CFMEU. I mean, these bikies didn’t turn up yesterday, according to Peter. What was the ABCC doing? Like, these guys act like, you know, they clutch their pearls and all act all shocked and outraged now. The reality is that when they’re in power, they go after trade unions, they don’t go after crooks. We want to go after crooks. That’s what I’d encourage Peter to do, rather than just simply say that all construction trade unionists are bad. There is a problem in this union. We agree on that…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Pete?
BILL SHORTEN:
…I think an administrator is the quickest way to deal with it.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Response, Pete?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl, the ABCC charged dozens and dozens of CFMEU officials. Over the last eight years, $19 million worth of costs have been awarded against the CFMEU, or fines have been imposed on the CFMEU. I mean this is a lawless union. It’s got the bikers involved. They’re standing over good workers, and it’s not what a union should do.
The AWU could come in and represent these workers. If you de-register the CFMEU, you stamp it out. That’s exactly what Bob Hawke did because he had the guts and the backbone to stand up against a militant, corrupt union in the BLF. Anthony Albanese isn’t a patch on Bob Hawke, and he’s just demonstrated again how weak and pathetic he is as a Prime Minister.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay, Andrew Forrest will slash 700 jobs as the company scales back its green hydrogen targets – a key part of Labor’s plan to transition to net zero. Bill, Labor has spent $8 billion investing and supporting green hydrogen. How’d that go down yesterday?
BILL SHORTEN:
Well, first of all, what Andrew Forrest does is up to Andrew Forrest. He’s a businessman pursuing his interests. I’m interested in how we have reliable energy for the future. And really, there’s two choices in front of Australians: we move towards renewable energy backed up by gas, or we perhaps go down the nuclear unicorn fantasy that Pete’s suggesting that will give us potentially cheaper nuclear prices in 2070…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
But, Bill, that $8 billion – but that $8 billion that you spent investing and supporting green hydrogen. Waste of money?
BILL SHORTEN:
No…the hydrogen technology’s still a valid technology. Mr Forrest’s balance sheets, is up to Mr Forrest. Businesses rise and fall. I mean under the Liberals, 22 coal powered stations were announced to be closing. I didn’t notice the Liberals say that coal was bad.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Pete, 10 seconds.
PETER DUTTON:
Karl, look, a tough day for 700 Australians – so thinking of them first – but this is just another demonstration of the fact that the wheels are falling off Labor’s energy policy. Green hydrogen is actually what they’re saying will be the firming up power for renewables. It’s not going to happen. We want to do what every other major country is doing in the world, that is firm up renewables with gas and with nuclear. It’s a zero emissions technology. We’re not going to meet our emissions reductions targets without it. The Labor Party is just going to keep driving up prices, and families just can’t afford another three years of this hopeless Labor Government.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright. I really wanted to get to this last question. I’m going to persist. A personal question to the electorate that needs to be answered this morning. You guys need to be honest. Bill, you’re first up. One in 10 Australians don’t let their dogs see them naked, do you?
BILL SHORTEN:
What was the question?
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Come on, Bill. Do you get naked in front of your dog?
BILL SHORTEN:
No, no. One in 10 dogs? Oh, listen…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
One in 10 dogs are naked…
BILL SHORTEN:
My dog’s naked all the time. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Why not? Yeah. That’s true. I mean, I love my dog and my dog, he never gives up a secret. He’s never ratted me out, ever. The loyalist friend I’ve got in politics.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright, Pete, you quickly?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl, I was just happy that Bill went first. But even with all of that time I still can’t think of response. I’m sorry…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright.
PETER DUTTON:
I love Ralph too, but not in the same way Bill’s talking about it seems. I don’t know. I’ll spare Ralph any drama, right?
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Thank you guys…
BILL SHORTEN:
Ralph’s a fan of mine. I think Ralph votes for me.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
…We’ve gotta move, we’ve gotta move. Sarah, over to you.
[ends]