{"id":31231,"date":"2016-01-01T18:09:57","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T07:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=31231"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:54:19","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:54:19","slug":"we-will-fight-for-the-worker-michaelia-cash-threatens-double-dissolution-qldaah-ausvotes-qldpol-auspol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/we-will-fight-for-the-worker-michaelia-cash-threatens-double-dissolution-qldaah-ausvotes-qldpol-auspol\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We will fight for the worker’ – Michaelia Cash threatens double dissolution: @Qldaah #ausvotes #qldpol #auspol"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'We<\/p>\n

Update – February 2, 2016<\/h3>\n

ABC Election Analyst\u00a0Antony Green<\/a>\u00a0confirmed\u00a0the Turnbull Government does have an election trigger on the issue of the ABCC but\u00a0the request to the Governor-General would need to be made before May, 2016.\u00a0. “The government has a valid trigger in the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014, but any request for a double dissolution on the basis of this legislation must be made by early May 2016,” he wrote.<\/a><\/p>\n

Senator Michaelia Cash<\/a> again publicly indicated that the government would go to a double dissolution election if its legislation did not pass in the Senate telling the ABC, “We already have a double dissolution trigger.”<\/p>\n

\"ABC<\/a>

ABC News 24: “We already have a double dissolution trigger,” says Senator Cash on ABCC legislation.<\/p><\/div>\n

Earlier<\/h3>\n

Federal Minister for Employment, Senator\u00a0Michaelia Cash<\/a>, has told the Sunrise<\/em> <\/a>program that the Turnbull Government has a trigger for a double dissolution election. A double dissolution would result in the full upper house being dissolved at the same time as\u00a0the lower house ahead of a federal election.<\/p>\n

Cash told presenter, Andrew O’Keefe, that if the government could not\u00a0get it’s Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) legislation through the Senate, a general vote\u00a0would be called on the issue.<\/p>\n

“The Prime Minister and I announced yesterday that when the Parliament resumes in February we will seek to immediately reintroduce the legislation to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission,”\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n

“We already have, if you are talking about a double dissolution trigger, we already have a trigger in relation to the establishment of the Registered Organisations Commission. The Labor Party has for two years now fought against the establishment of an independent regulator for trade unions and for employer associations. We already have a trigger.”<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnubll also signaled industrial relations as a major election issue for 2016 stating, “We are willing to fight an election on this.<\/a>\u00a0If we cannot get the passage of this legislation through the Senate, then in one form or another it will be a major issue at the next election.”<\/p>\n

Citing the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption<\/a>, Cash insisted that the government was acting in\u00a0the best interest of Australian\u00a0workers.<\/p>\n

“We will fight for the worker.\u00a0That is what we have always said we would do. That is what our laws are intended to do, and yes, we will make this an election issue,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Sunrise:<\/a>

Sunrise: Michaelia Cash threatens a double dissolution election.<\/p><\/div>\n

Cash also accused the trade union movement of acting unlawfully and corruptly.<\/p>\n

“You would know from looking at the report that the construction commission within Australia is just rife with unlawfulness,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They use the funds that they take from the worker and from third parties for their own personal purposes. How do you justify, you know, a box at a KISS concert? How do you justify a Tiffany bracelet? How do you justify the purchase of two $150,000 cars to be used for your own purposes? That is not using funds for the members of the unions. That’s using it for your own personal purposes. That is wrong, and that is what the Government is going to outlaw,” she said.<\/p>\n

However, in the final report, Commissioner Dyson Heydon stated that the findings do not have any legal ramifications.<\/p>\n

“A Royal Commission is an administrative inquiry, initiated and\u00a0authorised by Letters Patent. A Royal Commission is not a judicial\u00a0inquiry.\u00a0The conclusions reached by a Royal Commission are\u00a0expressions of opinion. They do not have legal force. They do not\u00a0determine the legal rights of any affected party,” section 98 of the\u00a0report reads.<\/p>\n

In August, 2015, Heydon himself landed in\u00a0controversy whilst chairing the commission\u00a0when it was revealed he had agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser<\/a>, the annual\u00a0Sir Garfield Barwick address.\u00a0Heydon ruled that he had no conflict of interest and that the\u00a0hearings continued unabated.<\/p>\n

Spokesman for the opposition,\u00a0Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Brendan O’Connor<\/a>, reminded reporters of Heydon’s close ties to the Liberal Party and insisted that any allegations of crime should be referred\u00a0to the police not dealt with through a royal commission.<\/a><\/p>\n

“What we’ve seen today, of course, is the culmination of $80 million of taxpayers’ money being spent on a political witch hunt in order to attack the opponents of the government,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I want to remind people of the commissioner and his role very recently, of course, in accepting an invitation to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser.”<\/p>\n

\n

#Turc<\/a> was only ever about spending $80m to damage the Libs opponents to pave the way for attacks on penalty rates and conditions #auspol<\/a><\/p>\n

— Brendan O'Connor (@BOConnorMP) December 30, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n