Abbott's 'Anti-Union' Bill Defeated in Australian Senate

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's efforts to revive a construction industry watchdog decried by critics as anti-union was thwarted in a tight parliamentary vote Monday.

The Senate in Canberra was tied 33-33 on the bill that would have reintroduced the controversial Australian Building and Construction Commission. The tie meant the bill failed. The re-establishment of the ABCC was expected to be the cornerstone of Abbott's industrial relations policy and was supported by business groups, but opposed by labor unions.

Australia's main construction workers' union, the CFMEU, welcomed the defeat of the bill.

“We call on the Abbott Government to abandon its divisive and biased approach and work in the interests of the workers and businesses who make a living in the construction industry,” said CFMEU Construction Secretary Dave Noonan.

The CFMEU was one of the main targets of the ABCC.

The Senate vote was condemned by the construction industry group, the Australian Mines and Metals Association.

“This sends a very bad signal that our parliament is not interested in cleaning up the unlawfulness and thuggery bringing down one of Australia’s most important industries,” the association's head Steve Knott stated, according to The Australian newspaper.

The ABCC was first created under the Howard government in 2005 in response to allegations of widespread misconduct in Australia's construction industry, and was given far reaching powers to investigate unions accused of misconduct. When the commission was abolished in 2012, it was mired in controversy surrounding its own conduct, including accusations the ABCC had eroded the union rights of construction workers.

Among the most controversial aspects of the ABCC was its enforcement of restrictions on union access to construction sites, along with its ability to legally force workers to disclose details of union activities.

According to the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the ABCC's broad powers were “designed” to “intimidate” workers that tried to organize around safety concerns on construction sites. In 2008, public backlash against the ABCC coalesced around the case of construction worker Ark Tribe, who faced charges for refusing to disclose details of a worker meeting about safety concerns to the ABCC. Tribe was acquitted in 2010, though unions say the ABCC's crackdown on unions made construction sites less safe.

“Workers need strong rights and strong unions to protect themselves from injury and death through cost and corner cutting and the desire of many employers to put profits ahead of safety,” the Australian Council of Trade Unions stated.

The union group argued, “During the period of the most aggressive activities of the ABCC in the last years of the Howard Government, workplace fatalities in construction peaked at 48 deaths in 2006 and 51 deaths in 2007, making them the worst two years for deaths in construction in the last decade.”

“In contrast, 30 deaths were reported in 2012 following the abolition of the ABCC – the lowest number of deaths in the past ten years,” they said.

ACTU President Ged Kearney argued the Senate's rejection of the reintroduction of the ABCC was a victory for worker rights, and slammed Abbott for trying to revive “unfair laws.”

“The Abbott Government has a clear agenda to attack rights at work,” Kearney stated.