CCH Australia - News - Deregister militant unions: Vic's Baillieu

Deregister militant unions: Vic's Baillieu

30 August 2012 | Content provided to you by AAP.

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has urged Prime Minister Julia Gillard to change the law so that militant unions can be deregistered.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is continuing blockades of Grocon sites in Melbourne and Sydney in defiance of Victorian and NSW Supreme Court injunctions.

Mr Baillieu has written to Ms Gillard calling on the federal government to amend federal legislation so that breaching Supreme Court orders would be grounds for union deregistration.

"The commonwealth government has a responsibility to ensure that Australia's national workplace relations system and the framework governing rights to act as a representative organisation does not allow bodies such as the CFMEU to break the law with impunity," he said in his letter.

"You will appreciate that there will be serious consequences for our economy, our reputation as a place to invest and general respect for the rule of the law if proper steps ... are not taken at a national level."

Currently, federal law only allows that breaches of orders made by commonwealth courts and tribunals may constitute grounds for deregistration.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Mr Baillieu could apply to have the unions deregistered.

"I think it's perfectly open to the premier of Victoria to apply for the deregistration of a union which is in flagrant breach of the law," Mr Abbott told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

Mr Abbott said the situation in Melbourne was a result of the failure of the federal government to maintain a tough cop on the industrial beat and again said a coalition government would fully restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) as a matter of urgency.

"The ABCC was a tough cop on the beat and while the Australian Building and Construction Commission was in place we had industrial peace on building sites," Mr Abbott said.

"It wasn't perfect but it was much, much better than it is now," he said of the building industry watchdog dismantled by the Labor government.

Mr Abbott said the ABCC was responsible for about $2.5 million worth of fines on union officials who broke the law.

"What we are seeing in the streets of Melbourne right now is a sign of this government's failure to ensure the rule of law applies on building sites," Mr Abbott said.

"No one is above the law. People who break the law must be prosecuted, they must be punished and those punishments must be enforced."

Mr Baillieu said in the letter the CFMEU's behaviour was a threat to the construction industry, to employment and to investment in Victoria.

"Australians across the country have been appalled by the CFMEU's conduct, described by your own minister as `thuggery'," he said.

"It is totally unacceptable for any organisation to repudiate the rule of law, especially in such an aggressive manner."

Mr Baillieu said federal Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten had said he expected the CFMEU to respect and comply with Supreme Court orders.

"Amended legislation should insist that they `must' comply," the premier said.

Mr Baillieu said the states were not properly consulted when the federal government changed the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009.

"Had it done so, the legislation could have been improved to include adequate sanctions to deter misconduct more generally by officials and members of registered organisations who encourage illegal industrial activity in defiance of state courts and tribunals."

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