By abolishing the ABCC, the Government has turned its back on builders and subcontractors leaving over 300,000 small business tradies without any effective protection from building union bullies said Master Builders CEO Denita Wawn.
“With the passage of the IR omnibus Bill, we acknowledge the carve-out of many in the building and construction industry from multi-employer bargaining.
“However, it is not the status quo when unions have been given the green light to ramp up pattern bargaining and bullying tactics in our industry.
“Scrapping the ABCC is a message from the Government that they are not prepared to stand up to coercion and intimidation.
“The Senate extensively debated the countless examples of vile intimidation, thuggery and bullying which has been forensically documented in four commissions, dozens of reviews and inquiries and hundreds of federal court judgements so it beggars belief the Government would turn a blind eye.
“Despite an extensive history and culture of law breaking, the CFMEU has not shown an ounce of contrition so to believe they will suddenly do so is fanciful.
“Notwithstanding the efforts of the Senate, the changes to the original Bill do not go far enough to address our fundamental concerns around multi-employer bargaining and the increased powers of the Fair Work Commission.
“The Government has gone well beyond their election mandate and has overreached into the relationship between business and their employees. They’ve taken the ‘enterprise’ and ‘agreement’ out of enterprise bargaining agreements.
“The increased powers of the Commission undermine the benefits of enterprise bargaining with a new ability to reach into an EBA and alter it after the fact.
“Builders don’t operate in an economic silo and while many have been spared from multi-employer bargaining, they will still experience impacts from disruptions along the supply chain.
“These laws will stifle business confidence, productivity, job creation and competition at a time of uncertain economic headwinds.
“The Prime Minister said this would be a consultative government, this has not been the case and goes against the proper process around historical pieces of legislation,” said Ms Wawn.
