The federal government is willing to make amendments to pass its bill to reintroduce a tougher building industry watchdog, Malcolm Turnbull has suggested.
Speaking at a work site in Canberra on Wednesday, Turnbull said he would negotiate with crossbench senators to pass the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill, which triggered the 2 July double-dissolution election.
“The nature of negotiations is proposals are made, discussions are had, compromises sometimes are achieved,” he said.
Turnbull said employment minister, Michaelia Cash, would “listen to any and all proposals for amendments, [but] that doesn’t mean they will be accepted”.
“I am not going to engage with a sort of a public negotiation through the media ... because we do want to reach agreement with them but obviously the objectives of the deal have to be secured, because that is the commitment we’ve made to the people.”
The ABCC is a watchdog for construction unions with compulsory investigation powers and the authority to clamp down on unlawful pickets.
According to a report in the Australian, the government is willing to consider changes including an eight-year sunset clause for the bill and keeping the current requirement for the building regulator to apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal before compelling workers or other witnesses to give evidence.
“Certainly, I am prepared to negotiate,” Cash is quoted as saying. But she added the important caveat that amendments must not “change the nature or intent of the bill”.
The Coalition, with 30 seats in the Senate, already has support from senators Bob Day and David Leyonhjelm to reintroduce the ABCC.
To reach a majority of 39 it will require One Nation’s four senators and the Nick Xenophon Team’s three, or else it will need to take the bill to a joint sitting of both houses.
On Monday, Xenophon said his party would continue to push amendments to the ABCC bill including on occupational health and safety, buy-Australian procurement provisions in the building code and security of payments for subcontractors.
Xenophon said oversight of compulsory examination orders was “an important safeguard that doesn’t fetter the work of the ABCC”.
Pauline Hanson is still uncommitted on the ABCC bill.
Speaking with Sky News on Monday, Hanson said: “I don’t like union thuggery, I don’t like their bullying and we need to protect the small end of town, the small contractors and subbies so that they have a chance to get jobs and not be bullied by unions.”
But Hanson said she had “an open ear” to the opposition’s concerns after meeting with the shadow employment minister, Brendan O’Connor, and unions.
“I am listening to people to actually find what is the best answer to this to suit everyone concerned,” she said.
Hanson said she had been unaware the shadow employment minister is the brother of the Construction Forestry and Mining and Energy Union national secretary, Michael O’Connor.
On Wednesday, Turnbull said the ABCC would restore the rule of law in the construction sector and claimed the abolition of the watchdog had “cost Australians billions of dollars in additional costs for the buildings, for the infrastructure, for the roads and hospitals they need”.
“This is a fundamental economic reform that if it is not enacted will continue to impose higher cost on Australians, reduce Australian standard of living.”
In the election campaign, Turnbull said the ABCC would help stop “excessive” pay rises like a workplace deal granting a 15% pay rise over three years negotiated by the Victorian construction union.
Attached to the bill is a building code that regulates the contents of workplace deals made by firms bidding for government work.
This includes provisions that the government has said prevent restrictive work practices and discrimination against contractors but unions believes undermine collective bargaining.
Turnbull said the building code, which bans coercion to win above-award pay rises, would “ensure you don’t get these shocking agreements between the CFMEU and builders”. He said builders were “basically stood over” by the construction union.
If the bill is defeated, the government can take it to a joint sitting.
The bill is opposed by Labor, the Greens, Jacqui Lambie, Bob Katter and Andrew Wilkie, the latter two of who voted to abolish the body in 2012.
Katter has been particularly vocal, warning the prime minister not to “antagonise” him by proceeding with legislation to restore the ABCC.
The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union’s national secretary, Dave Noonan, told Guardian Australia the union was “seeking to put the case for equality before the law and a balanced approach to industrial relations to the crossbench”.
