Federal Agriculture Minister agrees with decision to place CFMEU under independent administration
Labor's national executive is meeting today to discuss its ties to the embattled construction division of the CFMEU. Agriculture Minister Murray Watt says the decision to place the union under independent administration is the right one.
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00:00I certainly believe that that is the best and toughest measure that we can possibly
00:05be taking to clean up what is a disgraceful infiltration, it would seem, of the CFMEU
00:11by organised crime elements.
00:14Tony Burke has obviously taken advice on these matters from his department and it's clear
00:18from that advice that the best thing we can be doing and the most effective thing we can
00:21be doing is having independent administrators appointed to the CFMEU construction division
00:27and that will happen with the government's full support.
00:29I don't think it's surprising that there are elements within the CFMEU that are not happy
00:33with the firm action that the government is taking so I'm not particularly surprised by
00:37those remarks.
00:38I think it obviously would be in the interests particularly of the CFMEU's members who it
00:43is there to represent for the union to cooperate with this independent administration.
00:49I would have thought that the union's officials have an interest in demonstrating that they
00:52are clean and that they run a clean organisation.
00:55So I would expect, and I think the entire community would expect, them to cooperate
00:59with this.
01:00I might just also make the point, I know there's been a lot of talk about why we're doing an
01:05independent administration rather than deregistration and we saw Peter Dutton yesterday call for
01:09the deregistration of the CFMEU.
01:12That just shows a gross failure on Peter Dutton's part of what the implications of deregistration
01:17would be.
01:18If this union was to be deregistered, as Peter Dutton wants it to happen, it would mean that
01:23they are completely free of regulation.
01:25This would be a gift to the criminals elements who seem to have infiltrated the CFMEU because
01:31they would then be able to operate without any regulation whatsoever.
01:35So it's complete nonsense from Peter Dutton.
01:37It would free up the worst elements of this union to keep operating without any regulation
01:42and that's why we've taken the sensible approach and the tough approach of getting behind the
01:46Fair Work Commission in attempting to have this organisation, and having this organisation,
01:51have independent administrators appointed to it.
01:53I would certainly expect the National Executive of the Labor Party to be making moves in that
01:57direction this morning and that would have my full support.
02:01Obviously the ALP has an interest in making sure that donations we receive aren't tainted
02:06from infiltration from criminal gangs, which seems to be occurring here, so I would firmly
02:11support that action by the National Executive if that's what they do this morning.