Interview with Chris O’Keefe on 2GB

Subjects: Cbus Super, CFMEU

E&OE………

Chris O'Keefe

The allegations and the smell around the CFMEU have been ongoing for decades. For Tony Burke and Sally McManus and Labor Premiers, Prime Ministers and Ministers to stand up and go, we're shocked at these allegations. You've got to be kidding yourselves. The public isn't that stupid. Now, I'm pleased to say that Liberal Senator for New South Wales, Andrew Bragg, is on the line for us. Senator, thank you for your time.

Senator Bragg

Good day, Chris. How are you doing?

Chris O'Keefe

Can you explain to me what Cbus paid the CFMEU $1.25 million for? What was the purpose of it?

Senator Bragg

Well, no one knows. I mean, ostensibly, it's for sponsorship. It could be for director’s fees. It's a bit of a mystery. But the point really here is that we shouldn't have a system where people's retirement savings are being used for political purposes, certainly not for purposes like supporting thuggish behaviour, bikies and organised crime. And that's what I think is happening. I think there are a few things that fall out of it, but ultimately, the point is that people's hard-earned money is being used to underpin Mafia-like behaviour.

Chris O'Keefe

Have you asked the CFMEU in Senate Estimates or under any other questioning as to what that $1.25 million was used for?

Senator Bragg

Yes. There's currently an investigation by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, APRA, into these sorts of payments. And I think it's very important that the regulator enforces the law here because one thing I've observed after five years in Parliament is that lots of laws are made, and not a lot of law enforcement goes on. So, I can see no justification for giving sponsorship to the Victorian branch of the CFMEU, particularly given what it's been up to. So, I think APRA has got to do a really big job.

Chris O'Keefe

Given you've got three members of the CFMEU currently on the Cbus board, does that raise eyebrows?

Senator Bragg

Well, it raises eyebrows, particularly in the housing space. I mean, the Labor Government in Canberra is trying to get the Cbus super fund to help them with the housing crisis. Now, I think Labor is making housing worse because all their solutions are how they can send more money off to the vested interests at the unions rather than build more houses. I think this is a big part of it, that ultimately, here, you've got the Deputy Chair of the Cbus super fund as a member of the CFMEU. So, the organisation has been ostracised from the Labor movement, but they're still okay with apparently helping the government with housing. I mean, it stinks.

Chris O'Keefe

It does. And what do they want to put in $500 million dollars or something Wayne Swan said from Cbus?

Senator Bragg

Yeah. And the whole point is these are the people that are trying to bugger it up. I mean, they're the people who are making it more expensive to do construction in Australia because all they want to do is quit the ticket. And I think the idea that we're going to be left with Cbus having some formal involvement with the Housing Australia Future Fund tells you everything you need to know about the government's priorities. I would say the central problem with the government is they have no resolve to solve the main issues today because it's so focused on trying to help their favourite vested interests.

Chris O'Keefe

Before I let you go, Senator, do you think that the indignant behaviour and the faux outrage from members of the Labor Party and the Labor Movement right across the country, not just in Canberra, is all a little bit nauseating?

Senator Bragg

It's absolutely unbearable because, ultimately, these are the people that help them with their preselections, help them with their fundraising, put them into Parliament and often when you hear them speak in the Senate, it's very unclear whether they're there to do the job for the people of New South Wales or they're there for a particular union. I find it all unbearable.

Chris O'Keefe

And let's be completely frank: it's not like these allegations or suggestions around criminality within the CFMEU and corrupt behaviour by the CFMEU are breaking news to many in the Labor movement. It's been going on in and around the construction industry for decades, and people know about it. The ABCC proved that.

Senator Bragg

That's why I don't know why Jim Chambers and Julie Collins hanging out with Wayne Swan, who's President of Labor and the CFMEU, sorry, Cbus at the same time, is a good idea when they're trying to solve big problems like housing. I mean, these are not the people that are going to help. These are the people that are making it worse.

Chris O'Keefe

Senator Bragg, I appreciate your time. Thanks so much.

Senator Bragg

Thanks, Chris.

[Ends]