{"id":89028,"date":"2024-07-18T08:43:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T22:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=89028"},"modified":"2024-07-18T08:43:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T22:43:58","slug":"why-labor-gutted-the-building-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=89028","title":{"rendered":"Why Labor gutted the building watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They call it Get Square Time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s when the CFMEU introduces its own \u201cGST\u201d, builders say, and takes on employers with a renewed freedom and power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the refrain the industry hears from the CFMEU when a new Labor government abolishes the building industry watchdog, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, as has happened multiple times over the past three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Master Builders NSW says that major tenders will now have to factor in \u201can uncertain industrial environment\u201d due to an unleashed CFMEU. Peter Braig<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week, as parliament resumed, the Albanese government made it one of its priorities to gut the powers of the watchdog under the federal building code, which regulates behaviour on projects and bans restrictive agreement content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move has the industry in a state of suspense about how the CFMEU will respond on building sites. For Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who made an enemy of CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka when he called for his expulsion from the party following domestic violence allegations, an increasingly belligerent CFMEU could become a political liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master Builders NSW executive director Brian Seidler says that, since the scrapping of the code, some builders were reporting a change in attitude from CFMEU organisers and delegates, who they said were telling employers \u201cthis is our time now\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re already letting contractors know \u2018we\u2019re back\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s certainly growing agitation about which subcontractors they\u2019re using [that] have CFMEU agreements. That\u2019s always been there, but there are more signs that Labor\u2019s back and \u2018we\u2019re going to have a free rein\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They call it Get Square Time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":88467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,7391,3356],"tags":[11500],"class_list":["post-89028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-bribe-and-corruption-probe","category-corruption","tag-cfmeu"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t