State ready to act if construction policeman's teeth pulled

Commerce Minister Troy Buswell signalled today that the Liberal-National Government would reconstitute a special workplace surveillance team with powers to deal with union militancy should the Australian Building Construction Commission (ABCC) be watered down.

New Federal industrial relations legislation is due to be tabled this week.  Under Federal Labor's changes, the highly effective ABCC is expected to be relegated to a future as an inspectorate within the new Fair Work Australia department where Mr Buswell fears it will have a diminished role.

The Minister, who has portfolio responsibility for State industrial relations, said the Federal ABCC set up by John Howard's government had achieved spectacular success in controlling thuggery and maverick union behaviour on Australian construction sites.

"But I am extremely concerned that the commission's days are numbered under  Federal Labor, which has been under pressure from its union mates to pull the ABCC's teeth," he said.

"If that proves to be the case, our Government will not stand by and allow unions to return to ruling the industry in this State. 

"Kevin Reynolds might think his re-election is a mandate for that, but Mr Reynolds needs to think again."

The ABCC is to be abolished in February 2010.  Meanwhile, the Rudd Government has appointed Justice Murray Wilcox to review the commission's powers ahead of its incorporation within Fair Work Australia.

"We will be watching this process very closely," Mr Buswell said.

"The Gallop Labor government, when it was elected, went through exactly the same steps in doing away with the Building Industry Task Force (BITF) introduced by Richard Court.  The ABCC had its genesis in our BITF.

"If we see any sign of the ABCC being turned into a tame-cat compliance unit within a Government department then we will act to bring back a version of the BITF in WA.

"The Federal takeover of most of the industrial relations jurisdiction means this will not be straightforward, but the maintenance of law and order is still a State responsibility, so we would have to look at ways we could intervene on that basis should peace on WA work sites come under threat from irresponsible unions."

The Minister said an upcoming review of the WA industrial relations system would provide some useful insight.

"We will have some issues arise, I expect, as to how the new Federal and WA systems will interface," Mr Buswell said. 

"One of them, no doubt, will be how we can act at the State level to ensure peace and productivity in the construction sector is maintained."