Hands up all who have read transcripts
from the Cole Royal Commission into the
Building and Construction Industry. Bugger
all? Well that will suit Tony Abbott,
whose plan to write unions out of the
construction industry script is entirely
dependent on the average Aussie being
kept in the dark.
Much play has been made, by Abbott and
the media, of 392 Commission findings
of "unlawful conduct", the vast
majority against the CFMEU and its officers.
Well, let's go there, noting that Cole
and Abbott have been careful to use the
word "unlawful" rather than
"illegal". How do these findings
stack up against the claims on which the
Workplace Relations Minister and his Office
of the Employment Advocate justified the
Royal Commission, namely that the industry
was characterised by widespread standover
tactics and corruption?
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Below are the essence of Cole's first
three findings against the CFMEU's NSW
branch and, believe me, they give an accurate
flavour of what follows …
- "Murphy, in that capacity, entered
the Whitehaus Apartments site on 24
April 2002 and did not notify the occupier
of the premises of his presence as soon
as was reasonably practicable;
"on the material before me, I am
satisfied that Daniel Murphy, an organiser
for the Construction, Forestry, Mining
and Engergy Union, engaged in unlawful
conduct".
- "Fryer, in that capacity, entered
the Whitehaus Apartments site on 24
April 2002 and did not notify the occupier
of the premises of his presence as soon
as was reasonably practicable;
"on the material before me, I am
satisfied that Lincoln Fryer, … engaged
in unlawful conduct".
- "Smith, in that capacity, attended
the Whitehaus Apartments site on 28
May 2001, stopped work on the site and
held discussions with employees during
working hours outside of meal-time,
or other break times;
"on the material before me, I am
satisfied that Phillip Smith … engaged
in unlawful conduct".
Fair dinkum, Cole has uncovered the industrial
equivalent of jay walking and recommended
the equivalent of the death penalty.
He has come up with 212 recommendations
designed to ensure that building workers
have no effective voice in their industry.
This is not just an argument that Cole's
"unlawful" findings are so far
from the Abbott-Hamberger predictions
that they should be overlooked, however.
Far from it, his Commission was so flawed,
so inherently biased, that its findings
and recommendations should be rejected
in their entirety.
Alan Jones, hardly a trade union activist,
was on the money when he advised Abbott
to use the report as a door stop on a
Canberra garage.
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The Commission process was highlighted
when it opened its Sydney hearings in
June last year. Its investigators had
been trawling NSW for three months looking
for rorts and had prepared around 110
witness statements. Four or five were
overviews from peak bodies, the rest,
without exception, were allegations of
wrong doing against trade unionists. It
beggars belief that a $60 million Commission
couldn't discover one misdemeanour by
any employer right across the state.
Since then, about a dozen individuals
have revealed they made serious allegations
against non-union parties only to be told
their testimonies would not be needed.
The result was a parade of rip-off artists
making accusations against the CFMEU and
its members.
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