Jackie Trad dismisses royal commission into trade unions

• January 9, 2016 12:00am
• Jason Tin
• The Courier-Mail

ACTING Premier Jackie Trad has backed CFMEU figure Michael Ravbar, saying Labor shouldn’t take action against the union boss because there is insufficient evidence to back the allegations against him.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail, Ms Trad also defended the CFMEU itself, saying the union as an organisation should not be punished over the actions of individuals.

“It’s a bit like saying that because some footballers use cocaine then all footballers use cocaine – it’s just not the case,” she said.

The Acting Premier also vowed the Palaszczuk Government would not reinstate the requirement for union officials to give 24 hours’ notice before entering worksites.

Labor repealed the Newman government law last year, but the report of the royal commission into trade union governance and corruption recommended it be reintroduced.

Ms Trad also slammed the inquiry as a political exercise.

Commissioner Dyson Heydon’s report was highly critical of Mr Ravbar, the CFMEU Queensland boss and ALP national executive member.

Referring to the alleged destruction of tonnes of documents, Justice Heydon wrote that Mr Ravbar “wanted the documents to be destroyed so they could not be put before the Commission”. He did not recommend criminal charges against Mr Ravbar over the document scandal, but noted that there was already a police investigation into the matter.

Acting Premier Jackie Trad has poured scorn on the union royal commission and its motivation.

Ms Trad said it was “absolutely and entirely” up to Mr Ravbar as to whether he stood down from the ALP national executive.

But she said the party should take action only when there were “allegations with sufficient evidence that warrant criminal charges”, adding: “And I haven’t seen that emerge from the royal commission.

“Quite frankly, there is insufficient evidence as far as I can see,” she said.

“The commission didn’t recommend criminal charges be laid and this has been ... a very heavily politicised royal commission from the outset.

“So I think it needs to be viewed from that perspective as well.”

The Acting Premier and influential Left faction figure also defended the CFMEU, saying the union had not been charged “as an organisation”.

“The organisation as a whole, just because of a couple of individuals, shouldn’t be completely punished,” she said.

Ms Trad stressed that anyone found to have committed criminal offences should “face the full force of the law”.

But she was adamant that CFMEU should not be punished because of the actions of individuals, saying there was no “systemic evidence” of corruption against the union.

Ms Trad described the inquiry as the “baby” of the federal Coalition Government and a political extension of it, while accusing Justice Heydon of making “very broad, sweeping allegations ... allegations that actually didn’t have sufficient evidence to back them up”.

“Quite frankly (Justice Heydon) can opine all he likes – maybe he should opine in front of LNP or Liberal Party functions as opposed to sitting on the bench at a royal commission,” she said.

Ms Trad says there is insufficient evidence against former CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar.

Asked whether the state would adopt the commission’s recommendation that laws be introduced requiring union officials to give 24 hours’ notice before entering worksites, Ms Trad said the Government would reject the proposal.

“The Palaszczuk Government made very clear, in Opposition and in the lead-up to the last election, that we would bring back world-class workplace health and safety laws in this state and we won’t be repealing those laws,” she said. “We have made a commitment and we will continue to maintain a commitment not to wind back any safety provisions, any workplace conditions and entitlements that Queensland workers enjoy, regardless of what Tony Abbott’s politicised commission says.”

Ms Trad suggested the commission should have spent time hearing about “sham contracting and those workers who wanted to blow the whistle on unsafe work practices that many companies are actually presiding over in this nation”.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott earlier this week defended the establishment of the inquiry as “the right and decent thing to do” in an opinion piece in The Australian.