Master Builders’ ABCC analysis built upon dodgy foundations

CFMEU ACT

A report commissioned by Master Builders ACT, which seeks to justify the continued funding of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), is riddled with errors and misleading statements and should be formally withdrawn, according to the union representing ACT construction workers. The report, paid for by Master Builders ACT and published by EY, claims removing the ABCC will cost the ACT tens of millions of dollars. However the assumptions made to arrive at the unlikely figure are completely off base according to CFMEU ACT Branch Secretary Zach Smith. “I hope Master Builders didn’t pay EY too much for this report because it’s shockingly flimsy,” Mr Smith said. “The report’s central claim is that the ABCC aids productivity. But then it somehow neglects to mention ABS data that shows productivity in the industry has actually decreased by eight per cent since 2015. In all these years the ABCC was fully operational. “Meanwhile the main survey in the report is unrepresentative and all but irrelevant to Canberra, given most of the 49 persons represented are from Victoria. “The best way to increase productivity in the industry is better co-operation between employers and employees, through their union. If that happened we’d get better training and skills, improve methods of construction, and have greater harmony on site. “The ABCC’s mandate has been to enforce a bizarre and outdated list of Liberal Party prejudice. It has banned printed safety advice, like Covid information, because union logos were on the document. ABCC taxpayer-funded inspectors have spent their days searching for illegal hardhat stickers and Eureka flags. “It has created unnecessary reams of red tape, because unlike every other industry, construction employers were required to have EBAs approved twice – first by the ABCC and then by Fair Work Australia. “Meanwhile the ABCC has turned a blind eye to the major issues confronting the industry such as workplace fatalities and injuries, wage theft, and the exploitation of visa workers. “The best thing for construction productivity in the ACT would be for the ABCC to be defunded and disbanded as soon as possible.”

/Public Release.