The CFMEU condemns Peter Dutton’s shrill and hysterical attacks on the union and his ongoing vilification of Australian construction workers.

Dutton deliberately conflates breaches of civil law with criminality. His view of the law seems to be based on that of a Queensland copper in the Joh Bjelke-Petersen years, where any union is fair game while politicians should be free to rort the system at will.

Dutton should first clean up the Coalition and deal with its representatives like his Deputy Sussan Ley who rorted travel allowances, the NSW Liberal Government which is mired in the Barilaro affair and the “serious corrupt conduct” of John Sidoti, as well as the scandal plagued Mathew Guy in Victoria, who refuses to answer questions about his own role in his former Chief of Staff soliciting a second income from Liberal donors.

The CFMEU exists to represent its members and it has a proud record of achievements in wages, conditions and safety for the men and women who build Australia.

We’re always in there fighting for workers, unlike Dutton’s Coalition which only fights for the big banks, mining companies and property developers.

And to line their own back pockets with other people’s money.

Dave Noonan, CFMEU National Construction & General Division Secretary