When Labor was last in power, it replaced the Howard-era construction watchdog with the less intrusive Fair Work Building and Construction agency, which was then replaced by the ABCC under the Coalition in 2016 after then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull used the legislation to trigger a double dissolution election.
The Building and Construction Commissioner, Stephen McBurney, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age earlier this year lawlessness would flourish without an oversight body in place, but the commission declined to comment on this occasion.
ABCC commissioner Stephen McBurney says lawlessness could thrive if the construction industry is left unregulated.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
The Liberals’ industrial relations spokeswoman, Michaelia Cash, said the Coalition supported the retention of the ABCC, “an effective body that maintains law and order in our multibillion-dollar construction sector”.
“[Prime Minister Anthony] Albanese has a golden opportunity to provide our nation with some economic certainty and immediately abandon his plan to abolish the ABCC,” Cash said.
The government will have parliamentary support to abolish the commission from the Greens, who also have a policy to remove it, but they would need at least one vote from the Senate crossbench to pass the legislation, and it is understood those more likely to vote in favour of its abolition have not yet reached a position.
A spokesman for One Nation’s Pauline Hanson, who is favoured to retain a Senate spot alongside party colleague Malcolm Roberts despite still being in a close race with the Liberals’ Amanda Stoker, said her party opposed the commission’s abolition.
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Adelaide University industrial relations expert Andrew Stewart said the costings assumed the legislation could be passed quickly and take effect within months.
“That’s unrealistic,” Stewart said. “If Labor does succeed in abolishing the ABCC, that will ultimately be a matter for [senators] Jacqui Lambie or David Pocock to decide.”
Stewart added it would be difficult to achieve without a Senate inquiry, and consideration of the increased workload on the Fair Work Ombudsman, the general workplace watchdog.
RMIT industrial relations expert Anthony Forsyth said if the ABCC went, the ombudsman would become the de facto enforcement body for the construction industry.
“In my view, building workers should be subject to the same laws and regulator as all other workers,” Forsyth said.
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