Crossbench senator Dio Wang has accused the government of not being serious about negotiations to try to pass legislation setting up the construction industry watchdog, despite recalling parliament to debate it and threatening a double-dissolution election over the issue.
Wang proposed several changes to the legislation in early February and has repeatedly sought, but says he has still not received, any clear response.
The clearly frustrated senator has now written to one of the leading construction industry advocates of the bill to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) – Boral chief executive Mike Kane – to seek his support for reasonable amendments that could get the legislation through.
“A government that is serious about achieving unity on an issue as important as corruption and criminality would want to engage. But frankly, I’ve seen more interest from the government in division than in solving the problem,” Wang told Guardian Australia.
“In negotiations with the crossbenchers on the ABCC bill, it would be incredibly helpful to know whether the government thought our amendments were any good. But my office hasn’t had any substantive response to amendments we began discussing with the government early this year.
“While we have heard many comments in the media from various ministers about their shifting rules of negotiation, my office still hasn’t had a formal government response to repeated requests in the past two months for feedback on my ABCC amendments – correspondence I am happy to release publicly if the government denies it.
“These amendments do not constitute a poison pill strategy, they make the bill fairer and do not substantially alter its intent. That’s why I am now asking industry to step up and support crossbench amendments or the future of this legislation is abolition under the next ALP government and more grist for the mill in ideological division in politics,” Wang said.
Wang’s amendments, which he is now having drafted, seek to introduce judicial review to the extraordinary coercive powers the new ABCC would be able to exercise and to expand the bill to address the issues of sham contracting and “phoenixing”, where building companies declare bankruptcy to avoid paying subcontractors before reopening under different names.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, now says he will only consider amendments that are already guaranteed the necessary support from six of the eight crossbenchers. But the crossbenchers say it is impossible to discuss amendments without knowing the attitude of the government and that this condition makes it almost impossible for the bill to pass.
Turnbull said on Sunday it was “hard to predict” whether the ABCC bill would pass the Senate when it resumes for a special sitting from 18 April, but confirmed the government would not be trying to broker a deal with separate talks with the eight crossbenchers but was relying on them to figure out a deal among themselves.
“If they come to the [workplace relations] minister Michaelia Cash with an amendment that will secure the support of the six crossbench senators and will therefore secure the passage of the bill and that amendment does not undermine the integrity of the bill and is not in our view inconsistent with its purpose of the bill, then she and the government will consider it,” he said in an interview on Sky News.
He also confirmed the Coalition would not consider a national Icac-style corruption body.
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has demanded a national Icac, the Queensland senator Glenn Lazarus has said he would only support the ABCC “if it is broadened to address misconduct and corruption across all industries”, Victorian senator John Madigan said other sectors such as finance and banking also needed tougher oversight and West Australian senator Dio Wang has already set up a parliamentary inquiry into a national anti-corruption agency.
But Turnbull said: “Whatever the merits of a national Icac maybe …. that is quite separate and distinct from the ABCC legislation ... That is not an amendment to the bill, that is a completely separate proposition. If they want to have a federal Icac they should move a private member’s bill in the normal way.”
Last week Turnbull asked Family First senator Bob Day to try to broker a deal with his fellow crossbenchers but most rejected the idea, saying they would only deal with the government on an individual basis.
The government needs support from at least six of the eight crossbench senators. All but Day have reservations. Senators Lambie and Madigan appear strongly opposed and highly unlikely to vote for the bill. Senators Leyonhjelm, Muir, Wang and Xenophon are considered possible supporters, if the government is willing to actually negotiate over amendments. That would leave Lazarus with a deciding vote, but he dug in on the issue of a national Icac or similar body, which Turnbull has ruled out.
