How?

As the ABCC is a statutory authority it must be removed by legislation. The Labor Government plans to repeal the BCIIP Act and its subsequent Code and have already introduced legislation in the interim to ensure a smooth transition – the Code for the Tendering and Performance of Building Work Amendment Instrument 2022 (Cth). The Federal Government will find this difficult to pass due to the Liberal Party’s strong opposition to the removal of the ABCC – approval of this change will depend on crossbenchers in Parliament.

If the Albanese government fail to strip the ABCC’s powers by repealing its authorising legislation, they plan to defund it.

Why?

Although the ABCC was re-introduced in 2016 to improve productivity in the construction industry (as the name of the accompanying legislation suggests), it has consistently been unproductive – in 2017-18 construction sector labour productivity fell by 2.4%, in 2018-19 it was down 2.6% and in 2019-20, it decreased by 2.6%.

The safety of workers throughout ABCC’s regulation has also been questioned with more than 330 worker deaths during its first period of operation under the Howard government.

The Commission has gained a reputation for taking the CFMMEU and its members to court for trivial matters, with the CFMMEU actively campaigning against the ABCC. The ABCC has a 93% litigation success rate, winning 102 out of 109 court cases between the time they were re-instated to the date of this article’s publication.

The ABCC is taxpayer-funded and has a budget of around $35 million, with approximately $450,000 going to the Commissioner of the ABCC, Steve McBurney, annually. The Federal Government plans to re-allocate the funds to other causes.