“Placing the CFMEU into administration is a critical and urgently needed first step towards taking the criminals off our building sites and stopping the standover tactics and thuggery that became the price of doing business,” Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group said today.
“The major parties have struck a good balance between speed and appropriate transparency and accountability, and it is crucial the administrator gets to work quickly as there is no time to waste.
“The CFMEU has spent the past few weeks putting pressure on contractors and subcontractors to sign up to their pattern agreements – that needs to end quickly.
“There is no place in any Australian workplace for menacing behaviour.
“Culture change within the union is essential and those who have operated outside the law need to face the consequences.
“The administrator has a mammoth task to deal with criminal and corrupt elements and those operating on the edge of criminality.
“Constructors expect disruption on sites in the coming weeks but need the union to be cleaned up to make the construction sector more productive for taxpayers, the industry and the workforce.
“The next steps are looking at government procurement guidelines, especially at state level; examining the role of state safety authorities and their relationships with the CFMEU; and cleaning up the CFMEU’s wider ties to economic and community organisations and institutions.
“Industry stands ready to work with the administrator where appropriate to work for the administration’s success.
“We need to ensure we never reach this point again,” Mr Willox said.
