There was a time when I used to write a lot about industrial relations. There were examples of constructive changes, of employers and workers, often without unions, getting together to devise win-win solutions.
But it’s impossible to escape the conclusion that IR is now essentially a lost cause in this country. The complicity of Labor governments, of captured institutions, of self-serving trade unions, of growing illegality and corruption – these factors combine to kill off any hope of economically beneficial reform any time soon
And let’s face it, Coalition politicians are part of this lost cause. After the Work Choices experiment, IR is essentially seen as a no-go zone by these politicians. The sweat forms on their brows when the topic is raised and any response is essentially gibberish.
But last week was a big one when it came to revelations of the role of the government in graft and corruption in the construction industry in Victoria. There is a certain irony to the fact that an inquiry being conducted in Queensland could be the means whereby redacted chapters of an investigation about the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union in Victoria become public.
The report of Geoffrey Watson SC into the allegations against the CFMEU reads like a script for a series on bikies, criminal gangs and drug-runners. Only it’s not fiction: it’s the real world of large-scale construction in Victoria.
The examples cited by Watson are terrifying. Full-time strippers paid for by the construction companies; fictional paid union delegate positions; gifted automobiles; repeated instances of violence and threats of violence; deeply misogynistic behaviour; construction sites as centres for drug deals, and the list goes on.
It’s worth quickly going through the history of these troubles in the construction industry. Once upon a time, there was a reasonably clear division of union coverage: the Australian Workers Union covered civil construction and transport projects; the CFMEU had coverage of high-rise buildings. Unions were largely absent in residential home-building.
This agreed division began to break down over a decade ago when the CFMEU officials, particularly the more forceful males, saw the benefits of infiltrating the territory of the AWU. This trend accelerated when Dan Andrews became premier of Victoria. A member of the socialist left, Andrews was aligned with the CFMEU; he was a bitter enemy of the AWU. One of the first decisions he took as premier was to cancel the East West Link project even though the Coalition government had signed a contract with the head contractor. Voters had been assured that the cancellation would not cost a dollar; in the end, the cost to Victorian taxpayers was over one billion dollars.
But the key to the cancellation of the project had nothing to do with the absence of any need for the new road and tunnel but the fact that it was an AWU project. Andrews wasn’t having a bar of it. The CFMEU officials had begun sniffing around this large transport project, and several others, and they wanted in. The extravagant Big Build project was about to get underway. An industrial relations paradise beckoned. There was the Metro Tunnel project. The Westgate Tunnel project. The North East Link project. And now the jewel in the crown – the Suburban Rail Link.
The combination of these massive state-funded projects, with costs in the many billions of dollars, would set the CFMEU and its affiliated bikie gangs up for years. There were effectively no constraints on the scope for graft and corruption.
Mind you, there were several players that contributed to this outcome. The underlying legislation meant that the monopoly role of the CFMEU was reinforced by the requirement for head contractors to engage sub-contractors with current enterprise agreements.
In practice, this conferred extraordinary power on the CFMEU to extract obscenely generous terms and conditions in these agreements because the sub-contractors would be excluded from the projects without them. The Fair Work Commission sat back and simply waved through these agreements.
In one instance, a firm secured an enterprise agreement with the CFMEU, and the owner immediately sold the business without any construction work being undertaken. Having an agreement was itself valuable.
Hapless public servants did nothing to stop overt rorting – multiple ghost shifts paid at triple time anyone? – and clearly illegal behaviour. But why would they bell the cat and possibly be exposed to danger when it was always clear that the Labor government was turning a blind eye at best or going along with the rapid descent into thievery and corruption.
Note here that the current Premier of Victoria, Jacinta Allan, held the relevant ministerial portfolios during the time the Big Build was being cranked up. A loyal lieutenant of Dan the Man, she must be held responsible for what is now estimated to be a cost blow-out of between $15 billion and $30 billion, money which effectively flowed to CFMEU officials, bikie gangs and many very unpleasant henchmen and enforcers.
To put these sums in some perspective, the current annual infrastructure bill of the Victorian government for this year is $24 billion. For each man, woman and child living in that state, the corruption bill is between $2,500 and $5,000. That’s money that has been simply wasted; it has found its way into the hands of highly nefarious types.
So, what has Jacinta’s reaction been? It’s the classic ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ routine even though Watson’s report states clearly that ‘there is no doubt that the government knew about the rising problem – but it is equally clear that the government did nothing about it.’
‘Let me be clear,’ Allan retorted, ‘those claims are not well tested or properly founded’ referring to the sums involved. (The ‘let me be clear’ phrase is indicative of her seeking a get-out-of-jail excuse.) This is despite the fact that the Manager of the Fair Work Commission had told a Senate Estimates Committee that the figure was accurate.
As for Allan declaring that instances of any inappropriate conduct had been referred to the relevant authorities, she clearly hadn’t read Watson’s report. In the context of violent intimidation, people affected don’t refer ‘instances’ to the authorities. The police have been largely missing in action because they were never informed or, when they were called in, they were too afraid to act as well. There is also the possibility that they were in on the stings.
Where does this all end? There are now serious question marks over the appointment of the administrator by the Albanese government to clean up the CFMEU. He was the one who insisted on the redaction of parts of Watson’s report.
The valiant efforts of the investigative reporters at Nine Entertainment published in its various newspapers are an example of the value of legacy media. These reporters have placed themselves in harm’s way but have intrepidly pursued the facts.
In all likelihood, the large-scale construction sector will be cleaned up to a degree. But with essentially complicit Labor governments, it would be unwise to expect too much. Mick Gatto might retire a rich man, but there are likely to be more Mick Gattos coming along.
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