Queensland’s Liberal National Party (LNP) government is proposing to cut construction workers’ pay and conditions and restrict their right to organise as part of its attack on the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Employees Union (CFMEU).

The proposals, which are part of the LNP’s bid to amend the state’s Building and Construction Code, go well beyond the limits already in place under federal industrial relations laws.

Unions counter that resourcing regulators of existing industrial relations, and health and safety laws, would resolve disputes in the building industry. But their ability to mobilise their members to protect their interests against the LNP and employers’ attacks is hamstrung by the federal government’s imposition of administrators on the construction division of the CFMEU. The administrators have taken power away from the union’s delegates and removed the elected officials.

The LNP commission was set up to investigate the construction division. However, it is impacting the building industry broadly.

It is........

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