Crossbench senators rubbish 'ridiculous' negotiations on ABCC deal

Date
    March 29, 2016
    Sydney Morning Herald

The PM hopes the senator can convince crossbenchers to support industrial laws and avoid a double dissolution election. Courtesy ABC News 24

    Analysis: Does Turnbull really want make a deal?

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's hopes of striking a deal with the Senate crossbench on workplace relations reform has taken a blow, with key independents unhappy about the government's hardline approach to negotiations.   

    There are eight members of the crossbench, not one. I don't know that it's the government's place to say who they're going to negotiate with.
   

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash on Tuesday said any proposed amendments would need to come with the support of at least six crossbenchers, and that individual negotiations would no longer be entertained.


Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm says he will vote for a second reading of the ABCC bill but his final vote "depends on a lot of factors".

And Mr Turnbull has enlisted his "old friend" Family First senator Bob Day, a staunch supporter of re-establishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission, as a conduit in charge of obtaining his crossbench colleagues' support.


The moves have angered some of the key independents, whose support is required to pass the stalled bills, and who face the likely prospect of losing their seats at a double dissolution election if the bills are not passed.

"They have no intention of negotiating anything to do with the ABCC, they are all just pretending to talk to us and the intention is to go to a double dissolution," said Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm.


Independent senator John Madigan has taken issue with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull choosing to deal with the crossbench through Senator Bob Day.

He dismissed Senator Cash's suggestions the government would negotiate in good faith if the crossbench got around a table and agreed on proposed amendments.

"She knows jolly well that that's utterly ridiculous. We don't agree on what day it is, let alone get together for this sort of thing," Senator Leyonhjelm said. "We're not a party, we're eight individuals."

Senator Leyonhjelm will vote for a second reading of the bill but said his final vote "depends on a lot factors, and it's not just about the bill". He is among a number of crossbenchers who many believe will ultimately support the ABCC with minor changes. As a result, the government may only need to persuade one of either John Madigan, Jacqui Lambie or Glenn Lazarus to jump on board in order to secure passage.

Senator Day on Tuesday said he had spoken to "some" of his crossbench colleagues and believed "the logic is there" for a deal that could involve using the ABCC as a template for watchdogs in other industries.

Senator Madigan, an independent senator formerly of the Democratic Labour Party, said he had not yet spoken with Senator Day about the deal, but that he had "been talking about this for ages". He said a watchdog should not be fixated on the construction industry but rather should be capable of holding the legal, medical and financial sectors to account as well.

"This idea is not new and I've been going on about it the whole time I've been in the place," Senator Madigan said. "I've even sent this to the Prime Minister, months and months ago."

The Victorian senator also took issue with Mr Turnbull's preference for dealing with the crossbench through Senator Day, saying it was not the PM's role to make such a preference.

"There are eight members of the crossbench, not one," Senator Madigan said. "I don't know that it's the government's place to say who they're going to negotiate with."

With three weeks before Parliament resumes specifically to deal with the ABCC and registered organisations bills, debate over the proposed construction watchdog is intensifying. The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union claimed that workplace deaths "increased dramatically" under the ABCC, which was created by the Howard government and then scrapped by Julia Gillard.

Labor's Brendan O'Connor declined to endorse the series of tweets by the CFMEU, of which his brother Michael O'Connor is the national secretary. "We should focus on the evidence and we should try not to be intemperate," he told Sky News.

Senator Cash said she was "absolutely disgusted" by the CFMEU's claims and said the tweets were demonstrative of "the type of behaviour they are renowned for indulging".

What the government is about is trying to con the electorate that these nasty crossbenchers are to blame for all their woes.If the good people of the senate had not stood up to be counted where would we be today? Time for us all to boot this pack of incompetents out, bring it on 'no nuts'.