Master Builders Australia is supporting the Coalition’s policy to fully restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) including the agency, its powers and underlying laws.

Master Builders presented its Strong Building Strong Economy Campaign Policy Reform Priorities, which called for a radical change in Australia’s public policy narrative and for policies capable of solving the challenges the national economy faces post the resources boom.

Master Builders Chief Executive Wilhelm Harnisch said, “A more productive building and construction industry is crucial to generating the economic growth and jobs as the investment phase of the resources boom fades.”

“As the Economic Analysis of Building and Construction Industry Productivity Update 2013 released by Master Builders shows, workplace relations reforms are one of the key components of a more productive building and construction industry,” Mr Harnisch said.

The key workplace reform identified by the report is the establishment of the ABCC, which operated between 2005 and mid-2012 and oversaw improved industrial relations practices which resulted in dramatically increased productivity throughout the national economy.

The report found that when the ABCC acted as the building industry regulator, Australian consumers were $7.5 billion better off in current (2012/13) dollars.

“Master Builders believes the pendulum in industrial relations has swung too far in favour of unions since the ABCC was abolished in June 2012,” Wilhelm Harnisch said.

“Appalling recent instances of industrial thuggery by building unions in Victoria and Queensland are evidence of this,” he said.

The Coalition announced its commitment to re-establishing the ABCC, the agency and its powers before the 2013 Election was called and has re-stated its intent to implement this policy many times throughout the Election Campaign.

The Australian Labor Party has now advised Master Builders that, in contrast with the Coalition, they will not restore the ABCC if elected at the forthcoming election. Labor believes they had a strong mandate to abolish the ABCC and that they have replaced it with “more effective regulatory arrangements through the Fair Work Building and Construction (FWBC).”

“In reality the FWBC is all bark and no bite,” Mr Harnisch said.

“Presented with this clear choice, Master Builders strongly endorses the Coalition’s policy to restore the ABCC and calls on the ALP to reconsider its position,” Wilhelm Harnisch said.