Scott Morrison’s government is reigniting its campaign to bring back legislation enabling it to deregister unions, using the controversy surrounding Victorian CFMMEU boss John Setka as a launch pad.
In an interview with the Australian Financial Review last week, Christian Porter, who has responsibility for industrial relations in Morrison’s new cabinet, said he believed the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union should be deregistered over what he called an “extraordinarily high standard of unlawful activity”.
The government lost the fight to pass its “ensuring integrity” bill in the last parliament, which would have given the federal court the power to fine and eventually deregister organisations found “unlawful”. Deregistered organisations would lose bargaining privileges and workplace entry rights, as well as their tax exempt status. Union officials could also be individually targeted, and lose their status through federal court rulings, under the legislation.
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, the assistant treasurer, Michael Sukkar, agreed with Porter that the CFMMEU should be deregistered and demanded the Labor party support the government’s legislation, in order for it to pass.
“The Labor party could assist the CFMMEU and other rogue organisations reform themselves and improve their performance and improve they way they operate within the law by actually putting some pressure on them,” Sukkar said. “I think there is a very good argument to be made that says if you don’t deregister organisations like the current CFMMEU then which organisation would ever qualify to be deregistered?”
Anthony Albanese’s call to expel Setka from the Labor party when its national executive meets early next month set off a firestorm of responses from within the union movement, which has accused the Labor leader of attempting to meddle in union affairs.
Setka will return to court this week on charges including using a carriage service to harass a woman.
Labor’s national executive will meet on 5 July to discuss Setka’s on-going membership of the party and it is likely to accept the political leadership’s call to cancel his membership. But it has no power to decide Setka’s future with the union, and, as a state leader, Setka will still decide the Victorian CFMMEU’s voting position, through delegates, even if he is removed from the party.
The ACTU president, Sally McManus, has also called on Setka to resign from the union, which led to a public divide within the union movement.
The Victorian branch of the CFMMEU and other members of the Victorian left have demanded public shows of support for Setka, as well as threats to cut off financial and in-kind support to the Labor party.
Union leaders in support of Setka have also demanded an investigation into leaks from the CFMMEU national executive, as well as threats to no longer recognise the traditional demarcation lines within the union movement, for those organisations that have joined McManus’s call for Setka to step aside.
Without Labor’s support, the government would need to rely on four of the Senate crossbench members to pass any reborn “ensuring integrity” bill. Centre Alliance and One Nation, which hold four votes between them and will be crucial to any Senate negotiations, have previously shown limited appetite for the legislation.
