Media Centre

23 Nov 2011
Sydney Morning Herald: Greens to push to end building industry "McCarthyism"
Greens announce they'll move amendments to stop the ABCC's coercive powers being transferred to another organisation Full Story...


22 Nov 2011
ABC AM Transcript: Govt's Building Watchdog Bill finds no friends
ABC's AM program analyses the ABCC Abolition Bill, featuring CFMEU National Secretary Dave Noonan Full Story...


03 Nov 2011
Labor move to abolish ABCC
he federal government will press ahead today with plans to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Julia Gillard signalled to caucus last month that laws to abolish the construction industry watchdog would be introduced to parliame Full Story...


Media Releases

17 Jan 2012
ABCC's “action” to protect workers entitlements is too little, too late
CFMEU National Construction Assistant Secretary Frank O'Grady said today that the ABCC's recent series of press releases boasting about the$297,000 it had recovered in unpaid wages and entitlements was a desperate attempt for the organisation to justify i Full Story...


20 Dec 2011
Time to end the ABCC - campaign continues 2012
The ABCC received a stay of execution in 2011. The legislation introduced by the Labor Government to scrap it was not debated this year, and won't be back in Parliament until February at the earliest. So the fight continues in 2012. Full Story...


02 Dec 2011
ABCC's Sham Contracting Sham
Full Story...


03 Nov 2011
ABCC abolition bill should go further and abolish coercive powers
The Gillard Government should follow through on its mandate to abolish the ABCC by ensuring its coercive powers are not moved to another organisation, the CFMEU said today. CFMEU Construction National Secretary Dave Noonan said the legislation introd Full Story...


Media centre

6 Reasons Why the ABCC Must Go in 2011

1. The powers of the ABCC are unworkable

The not-guilty verdict against construction worker Ark Tribe demonstrates that the ABCC has been acting illegally – in breach of its own laws.

"I didn't set out to test these laws. I'm just an ordinary bloke who went to work one day on a construction site in Adelaide.

The last two years have been shocking, it's been a nightmare, I'm glad it's over. We gottem…you can't do this to us." Ark Tribe Rigger

2. The ABCC is discriminatory

The ABCC has around 29 civil proceedings in court against construction workers and their union.

"The way we're being treated out there compared to other industries is just not fair, what they are doing is actually prosecuting the people who are building the houses for our people, the office blocks for our industries." Rohan Tobler Carpenter

3. The powers of the ABCC are unjustifiable

The ABCC has special coersive powers that have been enshrined in law. The Government has the power to abolish the ABCC and the laws which underpin it.

"It has powers that not even police agencies have. It has the ability to force people to give evidence against themselves, to give evidence against their families, to give evidence against their workers." Prof. George Williams Constitutional Law Expert UNSW

4. These laws are made for big companies

In 2010 the ABCC fined one employer $12,000 for denying union access to a construction site for a safety check. In an industry where a worker dies on average each week this is a slap on the wrist

"I've definitely never heard of them sticking up for an employee, I've heard them prosecute employees, threatening to take their houses away by fining them, prosecuting their unions." Rohan Tobler Carpenter

5. A waste of taxpayer's money

The ABCC wasted a million taxpayer dollars in its failed attempt to prosecute Ark Tribe for not attending a secret interrogation. Each year the ABCC costs us $30 million to run.

"I find it obscene that tax payers money is being used to finance a department that persecutes tax payers for fighting for their democratic rights." Brett Walker Electrician

6. Australia is in breach of the ILO Conventions:

In 2010 the UN slammed the building and construction laws for the seventh time for undermining workers' rights to participate in collective action and to be represented by their union.

"The International Labor Organisation has been very clear that the Australian Building and Construction Commission does not comply with Aus international obligations. It has powers that cannot be justified and it has powers that are not appropriate in a fair and democratic nation." Prof. George Williams Constitutional Law Expert UNSW.

 

Find out more...
 

Rights on Site TV

Real stories
Ark's lawyer speaks out
Death at work