The CFMMEU Construction Division today launched a major new campaign ‘The Real Crisis in Construction’, against the Federal Government’s ‘Ensuring Integrity’ Bill.

The National Secretary of the Construction Division, Dave Noonan, said “The Liberal’s ‘Ensuring Integrity’ Bill will try to silence union leaders, lower safety standards, clamp rights at work and cut wages.”

“This Bill does nothing to fix the real crisis in construction in Australia. The only thing it ensures is fatter profits for property developers, lower wages and worse safety”.

This campaign leverages CFMMEU research which has grabbed national attention.

The first report, Shaky Foundations showed that Australia’s apartment building and construction crisis will cost $6.2 billion to fix.

The second report, Bad Customers demonstrated that cost blowouts and delays have wasted taxpayer dollars to the tune of $10.8 billion over the past ten years and may cost an additional $5.0 billion over the coming three years. The reports firmly sheet the blame home to sloppy regulation and outsourcing.

“This law lets off company directors responsible for deaths on construction sites, defective building standards, wage theft, sham contracting and phoenix companies” Mr Noonan said.

The Bill gives the government and employers the power to have union leaders removed from office. If members of a union go on strike, or take any unauthorised industrial action, the employer or government can apply to have the union deregistered, put it into administration, or have elected union officials removed from office and replaced by an appointed administrator.

Mr Noonan said “These laws are the most extreme in the Western World – only Brazil has similar laws that carry over from when they were a dictatorship.”

The campaign targets the Senate crossbench, asking union members and the community to make their voice heard.

The CFMEU campaign can be accessed here: https://constructioncrisis.cfmeu.org/

Media contact: Pia 0412 346 746