Published: 22 Mar 2016
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union condemns the move by Malcolm Turnbull to force a vote on the ABCC legislation, labelling it as blackmail.
CFMEU National Secretary Michael O’Connor said the Government was using the ABCC Bill because it was struggling to come up with policies to govern the country.
“Malcolm Turnbull is playing games with the Parliament and the Australian people because he knows his Government is in trouble,” Mr O’Connor said.
“The Government doesn’t have a plan for our country’s future, they are internally divided and have been completely ineffective.
“This move is nothing short of blackmail, and is being used for the simple purpose of making big business happy whilst smashing workers and unions.
“Turnbull has ridden roughshod over our Parliamentary democracy by using the Governor- General to recall both houses of Parliament.”
Mr O’Connor pointed to contradictions in the Government’s language around the ABCC, calling out Malcolm Turnbull for spreading lies about the effectiveness of the proposed regulator.
“The Productivity Commission has discredited the Government’s line that the ABCC boosted productivity and ABS figures show that industrial disputes fell by 65 per cent after the ABCC was
abolished,” Mr O’Connor said.
“The Government needs a scandal to distract the public from its poor economic management. It knows it has to go to an election now given its popularity is plummeting.
“The Government is out of ideas. It’s created a political witch hunt to help it mask the fact that it has no policies and lacks any real vision for Australia’s future.”
Mr O’Connor said the Government needed to get real on election issues and come out with its solutions to our jobs, tax, education and health crisis.