The Albanese Government is attempting to sneak a new union procurement regime through Parliament by using Fair Work Commission reforms as a cover for it.
These powers risk making procurement uncompetitive, adding a union tax to money future Governments spend.
Labor is seeking to gag debate and rush the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No 1) Bill 2026 through without scrutiny.
The Coalition supports practical reforms to help the Fair Work Commission deal with growing workloads and unnecessary delays.
We do not support the unrelated union procurement tax Labor has inserted, which would have governments to preference businesses with union-backed enterprise agreements when awarding taxpayer-funded contracts and grants.
Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations Senator Jane Hume said these provisions risk embedding a national CFMEU tax through Commonwealth procurement.
“Labor are trying to sneak a national CFMEU tax through this Parliament, a regime that has cost taxpayers when it has been implemented elsewhere,” Senator Hume said.
“We support measures that improve the functions and efficiency of the Fair Work Commission that are in this Bill. But Labor are attempting to use them to sneak through this dodgy union procurement measure.
“Minister Rishworth must explain why she is tying the right for the government to discriminate in favour of union mates, to clearing the backlog for workers and small business at the Fair Work Commission,” Senator Hume said.
Shadow Assistant Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations Zoe McKenzie MP said Labor was ignoring the lessons from the CFMEU scandal.
“The Watson Report exposed serious allegations of corruption and misconduct linked to the CFMEU's influence over enterprise agreement arrangements in the construction industry,” Ms McKenzie said.
“After Victoria’s $15 billion CFMEU corruption scandal, Australians have every right to ask: how many billions of taxpayer dollars is Labor prepared to expose to the same risks?
“Parliament should be closing the door on the culture that enabled corruption and inflated costs - not opening a new one through Commonwealth procurement,” Ms McKenzie concluded.
The Coalition will move amendments to remove the procurement provisions and will introduce legislation containing only the Fair Work Commission reforms.
If Labor is genuine about reducing delays at the Fair Work Commission, it should support those reforms on their own merits instead of holding them hostage to an unrelated union procurement agenda.