executive director kirk coninghham OAM
Beware the enemy within The lack of attack on public servants in the federal budget was as pleasing as it was unexpected. Canberra bashing has become part of the deal for these budgets where politicians gleefully take aim at those they believe are easy game. This year the banks were in the cross hairs while the traditional attack on public servant ‘fat cats’ was reversed. The budget sensibly supported and funded an expanded public service designed to better serve our community and help hold others to account. Popular politics would have us believe that Canberra gets a thrashing from conservative governments because a one-sided ideological blinker keeps our heads firmly turned to the left. The reality is far more complex.
Well it’s not. The vast majority (93%) of Master Builders in the Territory are small businesses. Most are mum and dad operations integral to local communities. And the apprentices being labelled as ‘dodgy’ every morning on radio are hard-working, committed young people who deserve a whole lot better from their community. The radio campaign comes on top of CFMEU efforts to exclude local construction teams from government work. The most recent example is light rail where a union official bragged to the media of plans to exclude local construction teams from 75% of the job. Keeping local ‘snouts out of the trough’. Disturbingly the campaign sees serious safety incidents on unioncontrolled sites go largely ignored while any incident remotely connected to local industry is vigorously pursued.
“This is the only community in Australia where tens of thousands of member dollars are invested in an exclusive attack on locals. ” Ours is a caring community, but we’ve never been hostage to dogma. We look after people in need but we also appreciate and celebrate individual endeavour and excellence. We recognise and value the rewards that come with hard work and sacrifice but share those rewards through conscious choice.
As an example, a nasty cut to a local apprentice’s hand generates a press release, breathless calls to ministers on speed dial, and a full-on radio attack campaign. But what of a far more serious electric shock incident the day before on a union controlled site? No press release. No calls. No campaign.
This reality is sometimes lost on those who are purely motivated by ideology. They believe transgressions that allow bullying and attacks on individuals or sections of our community will be dismissed in ‘solidarity’ with the greater good.
Such flagrant manipulations add to the depth of cynicism across local industry increasingly eroding the union’s once proud voice on safety. But why? The CFMEU is famous for using safety as an industrial weapon but this is the first time we’ve seen this in a sustained public campaign exclusive to the Territory.
Take the current radio attack ads funded by Unions ACT. This is the only community in Australia where tens of thousands of member dollars are invested in an exclusive attack on locals.
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We initially thought this was just ‘pay back’ against local workers who gave harrowing firsthand accounts of militant union thuggery in the Territory at the royal commission.
They started attacking local residential builders, skewing statistics to encourage the belief that our local industry was unsafe and not to be trusted. The claim was that a person a day was injured (365 a year). The reality for our residential builders was closer to a serious injury every two months (6 a year).
We now believe it is a long term, heavily funded and orchestrated campaign with a purely commercial objective. Damning the rebellious local construction industry to make way for union compliant teams from across the border.
They’ve since moved on to attacking local apprentices, once again telling porkies to encourage the belief that local apprentices are inferior.
Canberra bashing has gone from conservative government attacks on public servants to militant union attacks on local apprentices and construction teams.
Most see this as a particularly low act, but those funding it rely on Canberra being quietly supportive or at least agnostic. “It’s just part of the age old battle between employers and workers”.
The hope is that decency and truth ultimately prevail and both forms of attack remain equally ineffective.
Canberra Building News I edition 2-2017
