THE HON PETER DUTTON MP
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR DICKSON
SENATOR THE HON MICHAELIA CASH
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS,
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS AND CYBER SECURITY
TRANSCRIPT
JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
17 March 2025
Subjects: Strong action from the Coalition to stamp out organised crime in the construction industry; Freshwater Strategy Federal Poll; Labor’s cost of living, housing and energy crisis; AUKUS; income tax; Labor’s Big Australia policy; home ownership
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………
MICHAELIA CASH
Well ladies and gentlemen, what we saw last night in the 60 Minutes revelations was almost incomprehensible. We still have on building and construction sites – not just here in Victoria, but across Australia – bullying, thuggery, intimidation, corruption, fear and violence, and why? Because Anthony Albanese has sat back and taken the weakest possible options available to him to tackle this issue, and we all know why. Under Anthony Albanese, $11.5 million has gone from the CFMEU directly to the Labor Party in donations and in kind. When is Mr Albanese going to stand up and start going into bat for the Australian taxpayer?
As a result of organised crime – because that is where we are at – organised crime, infiltrating the CFMEU and now basically running the construction industry in Australia, Australians – mum and dad taxpayers – are paying up to 30 per cent more for their publicly funded infrastructure. That’s the hospitals, the roads and the schools. Quite frankly, what we saw last night in relation to the allegations against women was utterly disgusting. Well, quite frankly, enough is now enough.
Mr Albanese, as a weak Prime Minister who is completely beholden to the CFMEU, has shown that he will not take action that will properly address this problem. Enough is enough. A Dutton Government will. We are going to announce today a suite of actions that will quite literally hit organised crime where it hurts and break their business model with the CFMEU.
The first thing we will do – and we call on Mr Albanese to work with us because we can do this next week when the Parliament sits – is to once and for all deregister the CFMEU. Mr Albanese has shown by putting it into administration that he will take the weakest response possible. It is almost laughable to see government Ministers out there today saying that administration is working. Well, if administration is working, God help the Australian people. God help women on construction sites, but more than that, why are thousands and thousands of dollars still exchanging hands on these construction sites around Australia? You need to comprehensively, once and for all, deregister the CFMEU, but also at the same time ensure that any official that has indulged in law breaking is never again allowed to hold office in a registered organisation, or go anywhere near a work site and represent the workers.
We also need urgently to put back in place the building industry regulator – the ABCC, which Mr Albanese, as you all know, his first act of government was to do exactly what the CFMEU wanted him to do and that was to get rid of the building industry watchdog. Again, we will work with Mr Albanese next week to urgently reinstate the building industry watchdog, but we will also smash organised crime right at its very heart.
We will introduce laws that will allow the police to target the kingpins and the bosses. The laws that we currently have in Australia only allow the police to target the individual themselves who have committed the crime, and as we all know, when it comes to kingpins, when it comes to bosses of organised crime, they often don’t get their hands dirty. These laws have worked well in the United States of America. Decades ago they were introduced to combat the Mafia influence – in particular in labour organisations – across the United States. So we will introduce these laws which will allow our police to target the criminal organisation that has itself been involved in a pattern of law breaking.
We are going to break open the business model and smash it, that organised crime has been running with the CFMEU in this country. We’re going to give the construction industry back to the Australian taxpayer because ultimately this is all about mum and dad, and the money, the extra money, they are paying for infrastructure in this country.
JAMES PATERSON
The CFMEU is not a union, it is a criminal enterprise, and its business model is not like that of reputable unions like the Nurses’ Federation, or the Australian Workers’ Union, who take fees from their members to represent their interests; their business model is much more like the Mafia. They take protection money from building sites and building companies in order to keep the peace. The primary beneficiaries of this corrupt model are underworld figures like Mick Gatto and organised outlaw motorcycle gangs like the Comancheros and the Rebels. It is Australian and Victorian taxpayers who bear the brunt of this business model – not just in their higher taxes for increased costs of infrastructure projects – but through the lawlessness and terror that we see in our streets and our suburbs. Because when someone engages in a home invasion, or a carjacking, inevitably that car that is stolen is ultimately purchased by an outlaw motorcycle gang. The kids who are engaging in these crimes are provided drugs, trafficked by these outlaw motorcycle gangs. And it is because of the weakness of Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party that this business model has flourished on his watch. As Michaelia said, one of his first acts in government was to abolish the ABCC, to unleash the CFMEU and their organised mates in crime, on building sites ripping off taxpayers.
A Dutton Coalition government will take a very different approach because we’re not beholden to the CFMEU for our funding in election campaigns. We will introduce a range of measures that Michaelia has already outlined, and in addition also stand up a new federally funded AFP led criminal taskforce to tackle organised crime in the building industry. It will not just involve the AFP, but other key law enforcement and intelligence agencies at the federal level, including the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Taxation Office and the Financial Crimes Regulator – AUSTRAC. Because we are determined to bust this business model once and for all, deliver safer work sites for Australians and affordable infrastructure projects that aren’t blown out by paying bikies $10,000 a week, not even to show up.
PETER DUTTON
James, thank you. Look, we’ve taken this very seriously and I want to say thank you to Michaelia and James for all the work that they’ve put into this.
We’ve essentially got organised crime figures running the construction sector in this country. This is the biggest corruption scandal in our country’s history because we are talking about billions of dollars, billions of dollars that are being paid by ultimately Australian taxpayers, through the Victorian Government, through the Albanese Government, for bloated prices, project times are being blown out, the costs are escalating, and for every kilometre of road that’s being built, for every hospital that’s being built, there’s a 30 per cent CFMEU tax, at least. By the accounts of some of the developers and builders, it can be closer to 100 per cent. So Australian taxpayers are being ripped off here.
What we saw in the United States with the Mafia in control and the teamsters and the relationship that existed there, it’s essentially been adopted by crime figures here in Australia. The outlaw motorcycle gang members are intertwined with members of the CFMEU. The CFMEU has donated $11.5 million to Mr Albanese’s party and to Ms Allan’s party. They are completely and utterly compromised and the corruption here goes to the heart of the Albanese Government.
The Albanese Government has known for years about the CFMEU, about the abuse and the violence against women, about the extortion, about the links to the outlaw motorcycle gangs. All of that has been fully known to Ministers in the Albanese Government, and then they’ve done nothing about it.
Now, why this is really important to Australians, and I think particularly to Victorians at the moment, is that when homes are getting broken into by kids who are stealing money, or stealing valuables to sell, they’re fuelling a drug habit. They’re buying drugs from outlaw motorcycle gang members who are the biggest distributors of amphetamines and drugs in our country, they’re stealing cars from your home at the moment because there is a market that’s been created by outlaw motorcycle gangs who are rebirthing these vehicles, stolen from mums and dads who have worked hard here in Victoria and across the country. That is the other limb of the outlaw motorcycle gang business model, and the CFMEU, by paying figures, shadowy figures and extortion payments to the outlaw motorcycle gang members, that’s fuelling that criminal enterprise.
Now, the Prime Minister stood up this faux administration model, which has only seen the CFMEU go from strength to strength. There are some individuals who are being employed now by building companies who work for the CFMEU. What are they doing? There are builders who are intimidated and feel that they can’t provide information to the police because they feel that they are physically threatened by these outlaw motorcycle gang members who are doing the enforcement activities, who are the hired muscle for the CFMEU.
We are literally wasting billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money through this corrupt model which is sanctioned by Anthony Albanese. The Prime Minister has no interest in clearing it up because he is the financial beneficiary, his party is the financial beneficiary of the donations of the CFMEU. The CFMEU still sits on the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party. The CFMEU is not going anywhere and that’s why they need to be deregistered and bring in a union like the AWU to provide the important work – particularly on building sites – around workplace health and safety. We think that is very important. We want safe workplace environments, but workplaces aren’t safe at the moment with the CFMEU, because of the assaults that are taking place.
The productivity is down to less than three days a week and this is an organisation which is flourishing because the Albanese Government has allowed it to do so.
Now, we’re going to clean it up, and the RICO style laws worked in the United States and they can work here in Australia as well. So this is not just a blow against the outlaw motorcycle gangs’ activities in the CFMEU, it’s also a blow against drug importations, stolen vehicle rackets, and it will reduce crime across society in our country. It is the most significant step that’s been taken by Government or Opposition in recent history. It will make sure that we have the ability for the police to crush these networks, and if we do that, we can try and address the housing crisis that Labor has created in this country.
One of the reasons that you’re paying through the roof for builders and tradespeople at the moment is because of the CFMEU – a corrupt model which is sanctioned by a corrupt government in the Albanese Government. This is the biggest corruption scandal in our country’s history, and we should take it very seriously, and that’s exactly what we do today.
I’m very happy to take any questions.
QUESTION
Can I ask how these Mafia style laws work? It says here that bosses and kingpins, even if they distance themselves from crimes, can still be jailed. How does that work though?
MICHAELIA CASH
I’m happy to answer that. So in the United States you have the RICO Act, as you know. This was brought in a number of decades ago to tackle this exact type of behaviour, in particular in relation to the Mafia and infiltrating sectors of the economy, but also infiltrating labour organisations.
The way it works is, under the current laws that we have here in Australia, you only have the ability of the police to target the person who committed the crime. In other words, you can’t go after the bosses and the kingpins who might just sit back and keep their hands clean. What these laws will do will ensure that the police are able to go after the criminal organisation itself if it is shown to have a pattern of behaviour in law breaking. In the United States, the pattern of behaviour is two offences in the last 10 years. So a pattern of behaviour under RICO laws is fundamentally different to the ordinary meaning of the word ‘pattern of behaviour’. What that then means is this; the organisation itself, regardless of who committed the offence, is able to be prosecuted. It is a fundamental difference.
QUESTION
‘They’ being its leadership of the organisation? Like directors?
MICHAELIA CASH
The organisation itself, but in particular the leadership who sit back, keep their hands clean and often distance themselves from the crime.
QUESTION
And when you talk about the ‘organisation’ here, are you referring to the criminal outlaw motorcycle gangs, or the union?
MICHAELIA CASH
Yep, again, an organisation is defined in very broad terms. It could be an organisation such as an outlaw motorcycle gang that has a formal structure in place, it could actually also be, more informally, a group of people who have come together quite deliberately to engage in organised crime. We will draught our laws based on the Australian context, but at this point in time it is very much looking at the CFMEU and the criminal elements of that, which it has been infiltrated by organised crime.
PETER DUTTON
I’ll just make this point as well. I’m going to write to the Prime Minister today, asking for drafting resources and asking for this matter to be dealt with in the Parliament next week. I think it has that urgency to it and I think we have the basis upon which to build the legislation very quickly.
To your question, the CFMEU and the outlaw motorcycle gang members are one and the same. These people are interoperable, they’re occupying executive positions and positions of authority on building sites, and some of them aren’t turning up at all because it’s just a direct cash transfer, because that’s what pays the relationship and that’s what makes it work for people like Mick Gatto.
So I believe that Mick Gatto, who is obviously a very well organised individual, is worth millions of dollars – I don’t understand where that money comes from, but perhaps he can explain that to a court at some stage – but the fact is that somebody like Mr Gatto, in a very sophisticated way, conducts his business affairs. Now, that’s subject to investigation at the moment, which is appropriate, and Nick McKenzie’s done a fantastic job with 60 Minutes in identifying some of these allegations. But somebody like Mick Gatto and other crime figures are in the orbit, and under our proposals are captured because of the conduct that the CFMEU and the outlaw motorcycle gangs and other crime figures are involved in.
It’s not just here in Victoria, this is a national enterprise and this is why the Albanese Government is corrupt to its core, because they’ve facilitated, they’ve allowed this activity to prosper, and taxpayers ultimately are being ripped off to the tunes of billions of dollars on major projects that are delayed by years. When you look at what’s happening here in Victoria, there are classic examples that people can point to. They know that these projects have just dragged on and on and on, and the cost has escalated, and people have asked, ‘why?’, this is why. because the Albanese and the Allan Government have allowed this corruption to take place.
QUESTION
Ms Dutton, forgive me if you addressed this at the top, I’ve just come from the Victorian Premier, you would have just heard. Her response today has been purely just to back the police taskforce to these allegations. What do you make of that? And do you believe a judicial inquiry or a royal commission should be called at a state level in regards to these allegations?
PETER DUTTON
Well not surprisingly somebody who would sanction and condone the corrupt activity of the CFMEU in Jacinta Allan, provided a wet lettuce response today. It was pathetic, and what it did was, it gave a green light for the CFMEU to continue as they are now. What we’re proposing is a model which will stop the CFMEU in its tracks. It will reduce construction costs in our country, it will reduce the affiliations between the outlaw motorcycle gangs – the biggest distributors of drugs in our country and the biggest crime group in our country – involved in rebirthing of stolen motor vehicles etc. It will break that link and it will close that business model down. So we have a serious proposal here, and I think the Government needs to adopt it.
The thing that they can do today, without Parliament resuming, is to announce that they’re going to deregister the CFMEU. If what we saw last night and what we know and what the Government has known for a long time doesn’t warrant the deregistering of the CFMEU, I don’t know what does. Now, yes, Mr Albanese’s party has received $11.5 million in payments from the CFMEU. Yes, the CFMEU still sits on the national executive, and yes, the CFMEU is still involved in the preselection of Labor Party candidates at the upcoming federal election, but surely now the Prime Minister can show some strength of leadership and stand up to the CFMEU and stamp out this corrupt practise. That’s the onus that’s on him.
QUESTION
Do you think though there should be another royal commission at a federal level?
PETER DUTTON
Look, I think there is a very strong argument for a commission of inquiry, a royal commission and…
QUESTION:
And if you’re elected in the May election, would you call one?
PETER DUTTON
Look, our priority at the moment is to get this legislation through the Parliament next week. We are open to a conversation with the Government about a royal commission, and we would encourage them to go down that path, but there are steps that need to be gone through before that can be facilitated.
I think whilst the Parliament is sitting next week we should focus on getting proper laws in place, and if the Government is minded to set up a royal commission, then it will be done on a bipartisan basis, and we’ll support them with those recommendations that they can bring forward. That is one of the ways in which you can address what is the biggest corruption scandal in our country’s history.
QUESTION
Mr Dutton, Michael Bleaby from the Fin Review, our Freshwater poll today has your ratings falling for a second straight month. What can you do to stop that slide?
PETER DUTTON
Well Michael, all I can do is be honest with the Australian people about the fact that we have a plan to get our country back on track. The Labor Party spent $2 million over the last two months, personally slandering me because they don’t have a good story to tell themselves. If the last three years had been a success for the Albanese Government and a success for our country, there wouldn’t have been a 30 per cent increase in food prices, people wouldn’t be paying 34 per cent more for their gas, people wouldn’t be struggling to send their kids to school or to pay to go and see a doctor, but of course they are under this Government.
So they’ve thrown mud and they’ve done the personal attacks and the unions have done that, including the CFMEU over the last couple of months, so you would expect it to have an impact, but as we get closer to the election, the Australian people are going to have a choice. Their choice is between a bad government in minority form – so it will be even worse – which is spending money, driving up inflation and I think under a re-elected Government, which is a minority government between the Labor Party and the Greens, the prospect of higher interest rates is very real again for Australian mortgage holders. That’s not the decision I think Australians should make. I think they should back the Coalition and my strong leadership to get our country back on track, to manage the economy effectively and efficiently, to stamp out union corruption. I will be seeking a mandate from the Australian people to stamp out union corruption and to deal with the biggest corruption scandal in our country’s history.
The Prime Minister, his relationship with the CFMEU, is to take money from the CFMEU to help them win elections. I will not deal with the CFMEU, who is also I might point out, a very strong financial supporter of the Australian Greens. The Australian Greens have supported strongly the CFMEU, even where the Australian Labor Party has been embarrassed to do so.
So we’ve got a lot of polling and a lot of contemplation to do between now and the next election, but my desire is to get our country into a better position than it is today and to help families who are really struggling under this Government.
QUESTION
Are you concerned that you don’t have policies that are cutting through with people at a popular level at the moment?
PETER DUTTON
Well, again, if you look at the negative impact of Labor’s polling over the course of the last couple of months, that hasn’t involved any policy, it’s involved lies and deception. Now, people will see through that by polling day, but Labor is the master at negative campaigning.
If the Government had a good story to tell, their ads would be about the achievements of the Albanese Government. Instead, they’ve destroyed the economy, their renewables only policy is destroying the energy market, and that’s why people are paying more for their groceries because the farmer and the storage provider is paying more for their cold room storage. They’re paying more for their gas, they’re paying more for their electricity. So we’ll have a lot to say about policy between now and the election.
But today is a very significant policy announcement. It’s a policy that’s going to root out the corruption which is at the heart of the Albanese Government, and it’s going to root out the corruption in the construction sector, and it’s going to help families live in safety, as opposed to in fear at the moment as people are doing in Victoria – worried about their homes being broken into, their cars being stolen – and we have a lot of work ahead of us to tidy up Labor’s messes. This is just one of them.
QUESTION
Malcolm Turnbull says that AUKUS is a bad deal that surrenders Australia’s sovereignty to the United States. Do you still believe that AUKUS is a good value for Australian taxpayer dollars?
PETER DUTTON
Well, I believe very strongly in AUKUS and I praised Anthony Albanese as then Opposition Leader for supporting AUKUS on a bipartisan basis. I think the need for AUKUS is greater than ever and I think anyone who objectively looks at the deal that we struck with the United States and the United Kingdom, sees a capability that will underpin our security for the next century. It is a technology that will continue to evolve, it’s best in class and working with the Americans and the Brits – our two most valued allies – is more important than ever, because as the Prime Minister points out, we live in the most precarious period since the Second World War, even though the Government’s taking money out of defence at the same time they’re saying that. We want to see AUKUS succeed and we are absolutely dedicated to making that the case.
QUESTION
What do you say to Malcolm Turnbull, though?
PETER DUTTON
I’ve just given that response.
QUESTION
There’s been a lot of conjecture, Mr Dutton, on whether there will be a policy on income tax cuts before the election. Your wording’s been a bit vague, but it’s hinting that now’s not the right time, given the inflation crisis we’re in. Are you able to put that speculation to bed? It’s widely accepted in the Shadow Cabinet there won’t be that policy. Can you just say there won’t be an income tax cut policy pre-election?
PETER DUTTON
Well Paul, as Angus and I and Jane have constantly pointed out, we want a simpler fairer tax system. We want Australians to pay less tax. Under this Government, an average family is paying about $4,000 more tax. So it depends really on where the figures are, and we’ll get more detail in the budget next week – we were waiting for the PEFO figures otherwise.
So what we don’t want to do is fuel inflation, which is what Labor’s done, and if you’re just splashing money out into the economy, as Labor does, you’re fuelling inflation which increases interest rates. This is why I say don’t believe that we have dealt with inflation in this country yet. Inflation hasn’t been tamed by Labor. They had a 25 point reduction after 12 interest rate increases under this Government, and there is a very real prospect under a re-elected Albanese-Bandt government that interest rates go back up. I’m not going to have a situation where that is possible.
We’re going to make sure that we do everything we can to manage the economy well. It will be difficult after Labor’s trashed the economy, that I accept, but we have a track record of dealing with economic management and making economic decisions, including tax cuts. Don’t forget we were the people in government who were the architects of stage one, stage two and stage three tax cuts. So if we can afford to do tax cuts, we will, but it will depend on how much money is in the budget, what’s going to be inflationary, what other measures are floating around at the time, and I think that’s the prudent approach that you would expect us to take.
QUESTION
Is the point you’re making there that income tax cuts at this moment could be inflationary?
PETER DUTTON
Well, I’ve just made the points that I wanted to make.
QUESTION
You mentioned ‘housing crisis’, new analysis shows that accessing super could bring up house prices 7 to 10 per cent. Will your policy make the housing crisis worse?
PETER DUTTON
Well, if you did it in the absence of a supply side measure, then yes, but when I talk about a supply side measure, I mean homes being built and coming to market. Now we’ve announced a five billion dollar plan, a very significant policy, which will create 500,000 new homes and that will provide an opportunity for Australians who are locked out of the housing market at the moment, because of Labor’s CFMEU tax, which is making housing construction more expensive than ever, because of the fact that they’ve brought a million people in over the last two years through the migration programme, which has fuelled demand for housing at a time when supply is contracted and building approvals are down by 11 per cent. So our plan is to fuel the number of houses that are available to Australians, and to provide young Australians with access to housing.
I’ll just make this point, if a young Australian five years ago had been able to access super and buy their first home, then that asset position today would be hundreds of thousands of dollars better off than if they’d been excluded from buying a house. Now, our argument is that with the uplift, the original withdrawal from superannuation needs to go back into super, because we want that money to compound by the time somebody retires so they’ve got adequacy in retirement. But by locking them out of the housing market, it’s just another asset class. Why do we allow your super fund to buy houses for other people, but your super fund can’t buy a house for you? It doesn’t make any sense.
So, the right parameters need to be in place, which is what we’ve done. There are other things that we’ll have to say about housing, but Labor’s housing crisis has been created because of the corrupt model of the CFMEU, and corruption is at the heart of the Albanese Government with its blind eye that’s turned to the CFMEU. There are a number of measures that we want to put in place to help Australians get into housing, and we’re stopping foreign buyers from purchasing Australian homes – I think is another important measure, and we’ll do that along with other measures, as I say, that we’ll have detail on before the election.
QUESTION
But in the short term, we do have a supply issue, so won’t that drive up prices?
PETER DUTTON
No, because we can bring 500,000 lots on, and we’ve got timelines in place that will see that come on quickly. So don’t buy Labor’s line, this is a…
QUESTION
This isn’t a Labor’s line, this is from the University of South Australia, they’re saying over the life of the loan, people will be paying $200,000 more on the median home.
PETER DUTTON
Yeah, I think in the absence of any other supply measure, then I’d be happy to have a look at some of those assumptions, but Labor’s been perpetrating this lie for a long time and it just doesn’t fly.
We want to make sure that we can get young Australians into housing. A build to rent for life model is not something that we adhere to. It’s at the core of Labor’s housing policy, and all of the promises that they’ve made, they’ve not built one single house during their period in government, which is why they continue the personal attacks because they don’t have a good story to tell.
Thank you very much.
[ends]
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