Interview with Natalie Barr, Sunrise

Event: Interview with Natalie Barr, Sunrise
Date: 18 July 2024, 7:18am AEST
Speakers: Denita Wawn, CEO Master Builders Australia
Topics: CFMEU investigation
E&OE

Natalie Barr, host Sunrise: Australia’s construction industry is under the spotlight this morning with urgent calls to resurrect the national building watchdog following allegations of corruption and links to organised crime within the sector’s biggest union. CFMEU branches in five states will now be placed under the control of an external administrator as a major federal investigation takes place, and while state and federal governments turn their backs on the militant union, building and construction companies say they do not want the CFMEU deregistered. For more, I’m joined by national chief executive of the Master Builders Association, Danita Wawn. Morning to you. Why don’t you support deregistration to get rid of the union?

Denita Wawn, CEO Master Builders Australia: If we deregister the union, it means that they can work outside the system and not be regulated at all. So, our view is the external administrator is right. It’s got to, we’ve got to start there. But there is a lot more to do. We need the police investigation. We need ACCC investigation and of course, the FWC and FWO investigations. There’s a lot to do here to clean up the toxic culture that we’ve been dealing with for decades.

Natalie: Yeah, Denita, it sounds like it. If things are so bad, like the allegations, say bikies infiltrating, underworld figures, a toxic culture that was brought up in the 2015 Royal Commission. Why is it still like that?

Denita: Unfortunately, this has been dealt, used as a political football. It is being considered as an industrial relations issue. It’s been put in the too hard basket. The coalition reintroduced the ABCC, it was then dismantled by the now federal government. But this is more than just an industrial relations issue. It’s a criminal issue as well, an anti-competitive issue, and so yes, we do want a strong building regulator for industrial relations, but we need a lot more resourcing to actually clean up the industry once and for all, as was recommended by that Royal Commission nearly ten years ago.

Natalie: Do you have a view on the Labor Government taking millions of dollars in donations up from that union over the last however many years federally and on a state basis, and then now wanting to clean it up?

Denita: Well, we’ve been disappointed with successive Labor governments in their defence of the CFMEU. They argue now that there’s been a criminal element that has made their need to change and to act now. That has been a well-known secret in the industry that this has been happening, but unfortunately, we didn’t have the evidence. The evidence has now come clear through the investigation and as such Labor needs to act. And they are acting, not to the extent that we would like, but certainly, I commend Minister Burke in his decisive action and introducing the measures that he announced yesterday.

Natalie: Okay, thank you very much, Denita. Here’s Mike.

Denita: Thank you.

Media contact:
Dee Zegarac
National Director, Media & Public Affairs
0400 493 071
dee.zegarac@masterbuilders.com.au