The price we're paying for Malcolm's ambition
Thursday, 17 March 2016
Every day the lost opportunities and damage done because Malcolm Turnbull wanted to be Prime Minister becomes clearer.
Dennis Shanahan in The Australian today on Turnbull's latter-day conversion into someone who's passionate about union corruption.
Turnbull seizes chance to put Shorten in the crosshairs
When Malcolm Turnbull was asked yesterday about the ACT Labor government’s extraordinary and previously secret agreement giving unions virtual veto on tenders for government work he went into a high-powered stream of pre-election consciousness.
The Prime Minister barely expressed his concern about the specific revelations in The Australian before launching into a considered and strategic attack on the CFMEU, Bill Shorten and an argument for the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
Turnbull didn’t seem to draw breath for what seemed like five or six minutes as he pivoted away from the ACT, which is a hotbed of union coercion and standover tactics, to target Labor’s iron links with the discredited but financially rich construction unions.
As he tried to fill a policy void with changes to competition law to help small business and fend off the appearance of chaos in the Senate over his voting reforms, Turnbull didn’t miss an opportunity to promote what is going to be his negative — carbon-tax style — theme in the election.
The disclosures of malpractice of union officials before the Heydon royal commission into trade union corruption has hurt the standing of unions generally and Shorten specifically.
We could now be enjoying the political benefits of a sustained, relentless and consistent attack on corrupt unions, something we could believe in, something we knew would result in real action.
Instead of that, we get a clearly short-term political attack aimed at Bill Shorten - without the depth or conviction we deserve from a PM who is really driven to root out crime and corruption in the union movement. It sounds like typical politician-speak because it is.
Remember Turnbull's first night in the job as PM? He chose the ABC's 730 program to make it clear that he wasn't Tony Abbott.
On 22 September 2015 I wrote this about Turnbull's nice guy approach to the CFMEU.
Malcolm Turnbull on ABC 730 last night - "we won't be waging war with the unions"
Here's Mr Turnbull's comment in context - taken from this affable, even flirtatious chat with Leigh Sales on the ABC's 730 program last night.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, the industrial relations reform, which is - labour market reform, is a - has been a very vexed one. It's been a - it's obviously been a pitched battle in some respects between the Government and the unions and business and the unions. I think the important thing is to seek to explore ways in which we can achieve more flexibility, higher levels of employment, higher levels of business activity and do so in a way that reassures Australians, Australian workers in particular, that this is not threatening their conditions. In other words - in other words, a - the challenge for us is not to wage war with unions or the workers that they - that they seek to represent, but really to explain what the challenges are and then lay out some reform options. Now, you know, as to specifics, well, we're a cabinet government, so specific policies will be resolved by the cabinet, and in any event, we're only - we're barely a week old.
Mr Turnbull's language signals a de-escalation of hostilities with the unions, he says it's been a "pitched battle" between unions and the government - from now on his government is "not going to wage war" with the unions.
It's very disappointing he didn't take the opportunity to talk about the CFMEU in particular and to support the TURC in general. I hope Mr Turnbull has not been influenced by the commentariat's "Abbott's Witch Hunt" and the bias allegations against Commissioner Heydon.
If ever there was a time to wage war with the CFMEU it's now. It's certainly not the time for the government to signal a de-escalation in its pursuit of corruption and blatant crime involving unions. That would be like police in the midst of a spate of deadly armed robberies deciding that "we don't want to wage war on the crooks - we need to de-escalate our responses".
Mr Turnbull needs to differentiate the interests of workers from the self-interest of corrupt union leaders. His language should routinely make that clear and he should take every opportunity to endorse the work of the Heydon Royal Commission. The other side of politics will continue its strategy of trying to discredit the Commission's work - to counter that campaign the good guys should give unequivocal and informed support to Commissioner Heydon and his Commission.
I hope Mr Turnbull will be one of the good guys.
ENDS
First dividend for ACTU after Turnbull/Union unity ticket on Abbott
The Prime Minister has invited business, union and community leaders for two hours of direct talks at Parliament House on Thursday.
Invitations have been extended to Business Council of Australia president Catherine Livingstone and BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott, Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Dave Oliver............
Mr Turnbull is expected to be accompanied by.... Treasurer Scott Morrison, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer and Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos.
....the Prime Minister said: “Australia is a prosperous country with high wages, a high standard of living and a generous social welfare safety net. To secure and enhance our prosperity we must be more productive, competitive and innovative.’’
Mr Turnbull said he was looking forward to meeting the summit’s leaders “to hear the shared reform priorities of business, unions and the wider community’’.
“Our government is focused on the opportunities arising from technological disruption and in creating an environment for strong, innovative industries to grow,’’ Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Oliver confirmed he had been invited by Mr Turnbull and would attend the meeting on Thursday “on that same basis that we participated in the National Reform Summit’’.
Unions wanted to engage in a high-level dialogue “about the high road’’, but were not interested in discussing cutting penalty rates or minium rates of pay. They wanted to discuss the economy, the changing nature of work, the impact of technology and have a constructive dialogue with the government.
ENDS
In December last year TURC Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon AC QC handed his interim report to the Australian Government. He said outlaw union bosses posed a "grave threat to the power and authority of the Australian state".
Now we know much more about that threat and what it will do to Australia if we don't fight back. Those technological innovations so lauded by our new PM mean it's not just an empty hearing room that's resonated the voices of people, witnesses to what rogue union bosses have been up to. Nor is it just Commissioner Heydon who is privy to the truth. Hundreds of thousands of us have watched and listened live and daily for nearly 2 years and we remember what we saw.
World-class investigators told us about their technological disruptions to union-related crime. The hitherto secret plans of outlaws hatched in email, coded texts, intercepted mobile phone calls, even muffled conversations in a Qantas Club have been faithfully captured and delivered with forensic continuity to Commissioner Heydon's hearing room - and to our homes.
So it's not just the Commissioner, it's the people who have seen the live and chilling exposition of crime, hitmen, murder, gangsters, bribes - and a system of patronage involving rogue union bosses that has blatant disregard for the law or the orders of our courts.
Until the ACTU admits our unions have a major, systemic problem at the top with criminals and corruption thriving in their senior ranks, it - the ACTU - is a part of the problem. It should be isolated until all traces of its insidious infection have been identified, excised and rendered inert.
The corruption-hosting ACTU is in denial. It's a long way from admitting to the problem let alone helping to heal itself. The words "grave threat" to Australia's authority, laws and justice system apparently mean nothing to the ACTU. Or perhaps it's just that Australia mean less to the ACTU than the interests of outlaw union bosses.
Rather than reacting like a patient told he has a treatable life-threatening cancer within, the ACTU's David Oliver is trying to discredit and destroy the physician whose team of forensic pathologists is inching towards the ACTU's cure.
Malcolm Turnbull says he won't wage war with the unions. If he won't fight back, the rogues within the protective ACTU body are safe - because it refuses to seek help. Mr Turnbull sounds like a policeman who won't take on armed robbers because it might cause trouble. Or perhaps, like Dave Oliver Malcolm too pretends not to see the problem.
The strong industries Mr Turnbull wants Australia to grow won't flourish if the first shoots are attacked by racketeers and corrupt cartel operators putting the bite on the best bits.
Commissioner Heydon's warning about the "Grave Theat to the Power and Authority of the Australian State" shouldn't need amplification. Police commissioners don't invite organised crime figures to police strategic planning conferences. Nor should the Australian Government invite the unreconstructed ACTU to help plan our future, at the least until the ACTU gets serious about its own rehabilitation.
ENDS
A philosophically inspired war on union corruption was a no brainer for the Liberals. How could Turnbull have dropped it to cosy up to the ACTU leadership? What was he thinking?
His attacks now seem me-too, insincere, a bit tacky, a bit too political. Turnbull doesn't sound like someone who can be relied on to instinctively follow through with union corruption busting. He sounds like a hollow-man delivering political lines because it's expedient.
Eric Abetz and Tony Abbott might have sounded boring and non-innovative in attacking union corruption. How much do we miss them now?