Are unions a help or hindrance?

My favourite part of the CFMEU fiasco, which culminated this week in rallies across the nation’s capital cities on Tuesday, is reading the comments section at the bottom of online media coverage. Phwoar, the general public aren’t holding back and I’m interested to hear what you think.

Around 300 officials have been stood down after the Albanese government placed the CFMEU into administration late last week, including more than 20 from Queensland led by state secretary Michael Ravbar. In turn, we’re seeing the shattering of the traditional buddy-buddy relationship between Labor and the CFMEU, with Ravbar calling out premier Steven Miles as a “joke of a leader” and “a puppet for Albanese” at Brisbane’s rally, while urging members to vote against him at Queensland’s October election.

I’m most interested in what happens during the aftermath of this upheaval. The Coalition claims the union’s been responsible for a 30 per cent premium on construction costs, otherwise known as the “CFMEU tax”. The Guardian Australia has dug a little deeper, finding that 30 per cent is very much a worst case scenario. 

And what about our housing crisis? Certainly if the “CFMEU tax” exists, housing costs are affected. Back in February, the REIQ accused the CFMEU of being largely responsible for Queensland’s housing shortages. Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) chief executive Antonia Mercorella, telling the ABC, unions were driving up housing costs but people were too afraid to point it out.

“We’ve got a lot of our tradies at the moment working on big [state government] projects where they’re charging a premium,” she said. 

“The challenge with that is they’re occupied on those sites and those projects — that’s not a bad thing — but they’re also wanting that kind of money when they’re building elsewhere. We need to start having a conversation about the impact that unions are having in Queensland … if we’re going to get serious about addressing homelessness.”

It’s almost as if Antonia was predicting the future…

So who’s going to clean up this mess? Can Peter Dutton sort right from wrong if voted into power when we go to the polls next year, and do voters care that much either way? The latest Roy Morgan research shows if a federal election was held now the result would be ‘too close to call’ with the Coalition on 50.5% (up 1%) just ahead of the ALP on 49.5% (down 1%) on a two-party preferred basis.

Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan, said people’s voting intention remained almost dead-locked. 

“The main issues people are concerned about are close to home including high inflation, cost-of-living and interest rates.”

Nothing’s changed on that front really, but is this big union crackdown going to make a difference? I’m not sure anyone can confidently answer that question while the battle makes its way to the High Court.

Enjoy your weekend

Matt Lancashire