Chairman Mal remembers fixing union corruption is a "vital, critical part of our economic plan".
Tuesday, 18 October 2016
If the past 12 months are an indication of how Turnbull treats vital, critical parts of his economic plan we might have to start looking for new management.
This bloke had nothing to say about union corruption in the election campaign.
He had bugger all to say about it before the campaign - besides pledging not to go to war with the unions and not to make major changes or swing to the right on industrial relations.
He treated Shorten like a partner. He invited corrupt union figures back to the prime ministerial conference room in Canberra and tacitly endorsed the status quo.
This week's script requires Malcolm Turnbull, playing the part of the Prime Minister, to don the cloak of the feisty reforming union-buster.
For this performance Malcolm, the judges give you a 3. Unfortunately, you won't be going through to the next level. Your performance was lacking a certain.......authenticity.
Well that's that then. Malcolm has spoken. Everyone get that? Good. What's next?
Here's how James Jeffrey, current custodian of the Matt Price's The Sketch saw it.
The Sketch: Hams, hamstrings and a boot for union
Malcolm Turnbull wades into the CFMEU.
- The Australian
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Strewth EditorSydney
Given the Australian Building and Construction Commission was the pretext for dissolving two houses of parliament and calling an election, it was probably time to have a bit of a chat about it in question time.
The starter’s pistol was handed to Julia Banks, the new member for Chisholm, who wondered aloud if Malcolm Turnbull might just be able to satisfy her curiosity about just what the government was doing in terms of making “union officials more accountable” and “cleaning up the building and construction industry”.
Looking close to doing a hamstring in his enthusiasm, the Prime Minister thanked her for this “very important question” and waded straight in, saving a special spot on the pointy end of his boot for the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
There was something for nearly everyone. Scott Morrison mused about the CFMEU’s “crushing effect” on productivity, and Labor’s deep-rooted and dastardly desire to expand its influence. Christopher Pyne spoke on donations from the CFMEU and other unions to Labor. (Cue Labor questions about Mr Turnbull’s hefty donations to his own party. “All will become clear when donations are revealed in accordance with the Act,” said the Prime Minister, unconventionally inserting a cliffhanger before the end of the episode.) Even Peter Dutton escaped the constraints of the immigration portfolio to give the CFMEU a hearty towelling.
Slowly it spread, the murky taint of union officials and their connection to Labor so pervasive it was almost to make one uneasy about all the union bosses who’ve tangled with politics through history, Ronald Reagan included.
But nothing had quite the same effect as Justice Minister Michael Keenan intoning the words “Police charged Kathy Jackson …” It was hard to hear Keenan for a while after that, the mere mention of that most complicated of union whistleblowers sending the opposition ape. And yet the voice of Labor backbencher Michael Danby rose above the din as distinctly as an emergent tree that casts its shadow over the toucan-dotted jungle canopy below. By some small miracle, he didn’t get kicked out. (In contrast, Labor listened when Kelly O’Dwyer was speaking, presumably in hope of some new treasure.)
Speaking of miracles, the slow resurrection of Tony Abbott continued. Last week, we saw him summoned down from his backbench exile to shake hands with his old barbecuing mate, the Prime Minister of Singapore, and allowed to ask a Dorothy Dixer.
Yesterday, Turnbull honoured him as “my distinguished predecessor”. Then, fed up with Mark Dreyfus (it happens), implored the shadow attorney-general to “get on our team, get on Australia’s team”. There was a time that Turnbull put Abbott’s Team Australia behind him. But this is politics, where everything old is eventually new again.