Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Murray Watt has called on CFMEU construction division boss - Darren Greenfield - to resign amid an ongoing corruption investigation. It comes after Greenfield's son - who was the union's Assistant Secretary - announced his resignation yesterday.
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00:00Well, at a minimum, I can't understand why Michael Greenfell's father, who is the State
00:06Secretary of the New South Wales branch, does not stand aside as well, given that he is
00:10currently facing charges of corruption. Of course, those charges have to be considered
00:14by a court, but it's unacceptable for someone to be in that kind of a position, facing criminal
00:19charges and remain in office. But these problems go well beyond the New South Wales branch.
00:25And as I say, if our scheme of administration can be appointed through this legislation,
00:31then it would enable a much wider reform of the CFMEU construction division and remove
00:36a number of office bearers and officials from the union who have been causing trouble and
00:41criminality and violence and thuggery for far too long. Serious action needs to be taken
00:46about the problems in the CFMEU construction industry, and that action needs to be taken
00:51urgently. That's why we did introduce legislation into the Senate yesterday, which would enable
00:56me as the minister to determine if it's in the public interest to appoint an administrator
01:01to that division of the union. You will have seen over the last couple of weeks, I did
01:06give the union a deadline to consent to an application currently before the courts to
01:10have an administrator appointed. They haven't yet consented, and I always indicated that
01:15if they didn't consent, we'd be moving ahead with legislation. So now, really, the issue
01:20is for the Coalition and the Greens to decide whether they are serious about cleaning up
01:24this union and will support the government's legislation, or whether they just want to
01:28continue engaging in political and delay tactics.