NDIS Minister Bill Shorten, the former national secretary of the Australian Worker’s Union, has responded to an investigation by the Herald and The Age that alleges criminal activity by the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU).
“I was furious when I saw what was on the television last night,” Shorten told Seven’s Sunrise.
“There’s a lot of very good trade unionists trying to make sure people return home from work safely and get properly paid. There is no place at all – no place at all – for this criminal behaviour. The standover rubbish. And we’re seeing it.”
Then-opposition leader Bill Shorten speaks to the media after he appeared at the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Shorten welcomed Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke’s pledges that “all options are on the table”.
“It makes my good boil, frankly. I have spent my adult life before I came to Parliament trying to do the right thing by workers and work with employers. But there are rules. There are laws. You have got to stick within them,” Shorten said.
Loading
“When anyone thinks they are above it, be they trade union official or employer, well, that’s… They have to have the book thrown at them.”
Shorten then criticised the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, launched under the former Coalition government in 2014.
“In terms of a royal commission specifically, the Libs had one. But that was more about trying to put prime minister Gillard and myself in the dock,” Shorten claimed.
“I got a thousand questions, but that royal commission didn’t even bother interviewing [former CFMEU boss John] Setka. So, you know, I think that Minister Burke will look at what are the real things. We don’t need another inquiry, we need to get on with it and root out criminal and organised crime behaviour from building sites.”
Read the full article here
