CFMEU push threatens the future of affordable housing

First published in Capital Brief

After three years in which the Australian Dream has been smashed by a collapse in housing construction amid a population surge, there is more bad news.

On Saturday, the CFMEU announced it will expand in NSW. The NSW CFMEU boss, Michael Crosby, said the union was looking at large multiple complex residential construction.

Now, despite being in administration, the CFMEU has confirmed plans for a major push into residential housing developments.

The union has already imposed what amounts to a 30% apartment tax on residential buildings in Queensland and now intends to extend this nationwide. This threatens to kill off home ownership for millennials and Gen Z.

It also threatens private builders and developers, who have been abandoned by this Labor government. The construction industry already leads the nation in insolvencies, and this will get worse if the CFMEU controls residential construction.

This development begs the question: what is the point of being in administration? It seems the CFMEU is able to continue developing its mafia-style business model.

Two indicators show the Labor government isn’t serious about putting the CFMEU out of business.

Firstly, the expansion into NSW apartment builds. This threatens to make NSW as dysfunctional as Victoria and pre-LNP Queensland — jurisdictions where the CFMEU rules the roost over major construction and housing projects.

A 2024 report commissioned by the Master Builders Association of Queensland found “evidence-based data suggests negative impacts of the CFMEU Queensland EBA is stopping projects going ahead and resulting in significantly higher new apartment prices than should otherwise be the case".

Reports suggest this price rise is as high as 30%. At a time of already high property prices, that is an impost on Australians that is unfair and unjust.

When the union was put into administration in August last year, the Prime Minister said that there is "no place for corruption or intimidation in the building industry".

If Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and Industrial Relations Minister Murray Watt were serious about their claims last year, they would have released a statement over the weekend setting out their approach to oppose the CFMEU’s NSW expansion.

Secondly, the apparently foreclosed CFMEU has been allowed to continue owning and operating a major superannuation fund.

According to company records, the Cbus Super Fund is 23% owned by the CFMEU, and the union continues to appoint directors to the board of the retirement fund.

It seems incredible that a union can be put out of business by Parliament yet still be allowed to own a fund that is a formal part of the nation’s mandatory retirement system.

The corollary: you’re not allowed to have a union, but you’re allowed to run a super fund.

All of this might be explained by the significant financial links between the CFMEU, Cbus and the Labor Party. It might also be explained by the strong personal links between the chair of the Cbus Super Fund and the treasurer. It is unclear how this has been allowed to occur.

The Coalition has introduced legislation in the Senate to ban the CFMEU and its related parties, such as Cbus, from taking part in the Housing Australia Future Fund.

The bill recognises the risk the CFMEU/Cbus cartel presents to taxpayer funds. It is equally conscious of the clear policy the Labor government has adopted to promote corporate or institutional housing.

The government wants large investors — such as super funds — to become landlords. Through HAFF, it is now paying super funds so-called “availability payments” to promote this model.

These payments are made to shopfronts set up by major super funds to legally wash taxpayer funds through their paper entities. Organisations like Housing Choices and Assemble, which are owned by Big Super, are to be given taxpayer funds in the form of availability payments.

Unfortunately, Clare O’Neil has blocked the public from seeing how much taxpayers are transferring to these shopfronts.

Surely, the Senate crossbench will see this for what it is and vote with the Coalition to protect taxpayer funds from the CFMEU’s mafia tactics.

We shouldn’t forget that one of the first acts of the last Parliament was to abolish the Building and Construction Commission. In hindsight, even Labor would probably agree that was a silly move to pay off its vested interests.

Let’s hope this new parliament can stand for transparency and integrity, and does everything possible to drive more affordable housing supply. Younger Australians are relying on it.

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