Watchdog function here to stay: Rudd

Phillip Coorey
June 11, 2009
EVEN if unions succeed in changing Labor policy to abolish the building industry watchdog, the Government will not adopt the change, Kevin Rudd says.

Refusing to take a backward step before Labor’s national policy conference in July, Mr Rudd said the Government would stick to its policy, regardless of what happened at the conference.

Unions are hostile about there being a separate set of laws for building workers. The Howard government established the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which has strong powers of coercion to investigate militant behaviour on building sites.

Labor promised to replace the ABCC by January 2010 with a new organisation. It is yet to decide whether the new body will have the same powers as the ABCC but is hinting they will be similar.

The unions believe there should be no such body at all.

But Mr Rudd said the pre-election commitment to establish a new body was explicit. “We did not say at the time that we would be abolishing the function altogether,” he said.

A senior Government figure said there was exasperation at the national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, Paul Howes, for backing the push against the ABCC.

The Opposition workplace relations spokesman, Michael Keenan, said the whole exercise was a charade. “If Labor was serious about ensuring law and order is maintained in the building and construction sector, Kevin Rudd would retain the ABCC,” he said.