Coalition claims Govt stymie on CFMEU/Cbus

The Federal Opposition is claiming to have been stymied by the Government in its attempts to have the relationship between the Construction Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) and Cbus referred to a Parliamentary committee.

The claims extend to the Opposition claiming the Government is guilty of reneging on a committee referral at the 11^th hour.

As well, the Opposition has alleged that Cbus Property has been the beneficiary of preferential industrial relations treatment which has delivered it a commercial advantage over competitors.

At the heart of the issue is Federal Opposition’s argument that the close association between the CFMEU and industry fund Cbus, should preclude the superannuation fund from participating in arrangements with the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF).

NSW Liberal Senator, Andrew Bragg has claimed the Government is “running a protection racket for the CFMEU/Cbus cartel in the Senate”.

“In an unprecedented move, Labor has reneged on an agreement to refer a Bill designed to protect taxpayer funds from union corruption to an Inquiry,” he claimed. “This highly unusual development reveals Labor wants to wish the CFMEU issues away.”

“Labor’s move to reneg was made known to Senators within two minutes of a vote,” Bragg said. “Overnight, Labor decided it would prevent any scrutiny into the CFMEU/Cbus cartel.”

Bragg yesterday told the Senate that the opposition had recently filed a freedom-of-information request to try and work out what has happened between Cbus and the HAFF particularly around correspondence between November 2022 and 19 July 2021.

He said that FOI request was rejected.

“To make matters worse, we also passed an order for the production of documents through this Senate last week with unanimous support, which was due yesterday (Tuesday), which was not being complied with,” he said. “So there is secret correspondence between the Housing Australia Future Fund and the Cbus fund which should be made known to the public, particularly given the scandal.”

“As I say, if it is good enough to put the CFMEU into administration then surely it is good enough to protect taxpayer funds in the Housing Australia Future Fund from the corruption and thuggery of this union.”

“On the broader issue of the coalition between the CFMEU and the Cbus fund, in the last year the Cbus fund has paid $1.5 million to the CFMEU and it has established a Cbus Property organisation, which has done $6 billion worth of property work since 2006,” Bragg said.

“What is very curious here is that we have talked at length about the CFMEU’s 30 per cent tax on the Australian people, where, if you want to build an apartment building, you have to pay 30 per cent in grafts to the CFMEU. But interestingly, the CFMEU and Cbus have been exempting their own developments from this tax,” he said.

“During an ETU strike which occurred in Sydney in relation to Endeavour Energy in February this year, the ECU, which has a seat on Cbus’s board, has exempted Cbus Property from their actions. So they are trying to destroy private construction but exempt their own vested interests here from their 30 per cent tax and their 20 per cent cut in productivity,” he told the Senate.