MBA and Liberals’ call to reheat construction commission is ideological opportunism

The push from the Liberals and the MBA to establish a South Australian version of the Australian Building and Construction Commission is little more than a desperate and opportunistic stunt that is divorced form the reality of modern workplaces, South Australia’s Building Industry Group of Unions says. 

The Master Builders Association and the South Australian Liberal Party think the future of construction is an anti-worker taskforce that almost doubled the death toll on work sites and received condemnation from the United Nations before eventually being scrapped. 

The ABCC was an anti-worker taskforce set up by the Howard Government in 2005 that saw deaths on sites increase by 80% in its first two years, as workers were intimidated from speaking up. The ABCC took legal action against workers for demanding women’s toilets and was condemned by the UN’s International Labour Organisation for contravening freedom of association and the right to organise before being scrapped in 2018.

Using a dispute among bosses to reheat tired ideological crusades against South Australian workers exposes how far out of touch the Liberal Party and MBA really are. 
Instead, they should be working to address phoenixing, sham contracting and the prevalence of employers engaging organised crime figures – as highlighted in the Queensland Commission of Inquiry.

South Australia is facing a worsening skills shortage in construction, increasingly insecure work and a need for more support for apprentices. If the Liberals and MBA want to rebuild trust, they should work with unions instead of attacking the voters and workers who build South Australia’s future.

​Quotes attributable to Dale Beasley, SA Unions Secretary 

“It’s galling that, during Safe Work Month, the Liberals are digging up this failed policy which would make South Australian workplaces less safe.”

“Construction workers are exposed on a daily basis to hazards which, statistically, are the deadliest in Australia: moving vehicles, working at heights, and the risk of being hit by falling objects. In 2025, five South Australian construction workers were killed at work and 872 suffered serious injuries.”

“South Australia already has the highest rate of workplace fatalities of any mainland state, and almost a quarter of deaths occur in the construction industry. We know from experience that this sort of punitive crackdown on workplace rights makes it harder for workers to speak up about hazards and will ultimately get South Australians killed.”

​Quotes attributable to John Adley, CEPU Secretary 

“Corruption has no place in any industry, whether it’s construction, finance, or banking. The ABCC arbitrarily stripped building and construction workers of rights guaranteed to workers in every other industry. It made them subject to extreme powers which did not apply to any other group of workers.” 

“To resurrect a South Australian version of the ABCC would clearly be a bizarre and ideologically driven attack on workers and their unions.”

Quotes attributable to Dave Kirner, TFTU Secretary 

“Nothing good ever came from the ABCC. It did virtually nothing about safety violations, employer misconduct,  or sham contracting arrangements which cost workers millions of dollars in lost entitlements every year.” 

“The abolition of the ABCC was a win for workers. The building and construction industry employs thousands of hard-working South Australians who deserve the same rights as any other worker.”