Today’s Federal Court decision to impose a $590,800 penalty on the CFMEU and its officials reinforces the importance of the Turnbull Government’s key policy to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission to restore law and order on our building sites.

 

This substantial penalty is yet another demonstration of the CFMEU’s complete contempt for Australian workplace laws.

 

The CFMEU’s coordinated campaign of unlawful action targeted nine job sites in Melbourne and Geelong, including critical infrastructure projects such as hospitals and aged care facilities.

 

Illegal industrial action by militant unions damages Australia’s international competitiveness, deters investment, damages job creation and imposes an unnecessary additional cost to construction.

 

Since 2007 the CFMEU has been fined $9.2 million by various courts. Today there are still 100 CFMEU officials before the courts facing a total of 993 suspected contraventions of the law.

 

Under Bill Shorten, Labor has accepted over $3 million from the CFMEU. This is the price the union pays for the Labor Party to turn a blind eye to their rampant lawlessness. This is also the price the CFMEU pays to purchase Mr Shorten’s policy to abolish the ABCC and allow the CFMEU to continue to break the law.

 

It has become completely untenable for the Labor Party to continue to receive millions of dollars in donations from Australia’s most corrupt union - an organisation that has repeatedly demonstrated no intention of obeying Australian law.