Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, , 3:38:27 to 3:44:31
Overview of inter-agency cooperation through the Commonwealth Senior Officials Forum to tackle unlawful behavior in construction.
Topics: Integrity, Public service staffing
Speakers: Sarah Godden, Senator Tony Sheldon, Greg Manning, Senator Marielle Smith
Banning, there's been a whole series of reports from repetitive governments, including previous government, um state reports of governments and different political persuasions that have outlined this phoenixing um tax avoidance, um wage theft, superannuation theft. Um again, that goes into many billions of dollars in superannuation theft. It's not that we haven't got enough reports, it's a it's a question about how we get the industry to change culture. Is that would that be a fair analysis?
I think it's a fair analysis that it also goes, I mean, we we've touched on it at estimates before about regulatory agencies are now working together more closely to make sure they're getting a complete picture and aligning their actions to try and um take a more holistic approach to it as well. So um so I think there's roles there for for the whole industry as as well as as well as regulators.
And sorry.
I'm sorry, Senator, I was just going to add to Mr. Manning's evidence is referring to the Commonwealth Senior Officials Forum in part. Um the JOG, obviously, is the regulators and law enforcement working together to share information, but in addition, we're working through the Commonwealth Senior Officials Forum to connect policy agencies with regulators and law enforcement so that we can share information and really understand how best to tackle the um the challenges in this industry because there is real power to sort of connecting the the policy development side of government with the The on-the-ground experience from the regulators and law enforcement and you're you mentioned the ATO, the ATO has representation on that, many representatives from the fraud fusion task force as well. And that is part of what we are trying to tackle from many different dimensions because this is a complex problem.
No, I've just slightly changed track with the same sort of same sort of message, and it's probably opportunity that Senator Still's jumped in because I know a lot of employer associations in the trucking industry. Transport industry is traditionally and is low margin. There's a number of exceptionally good operators out there, employ people on fair wages, still tight margins, but uh you know being undercut by you know companies that are sham contracting. I know the task force work that's been there, and I know Senator Stirl's been holding a series of meetings with the department, the fair work umbudsman, the Australian Tax Office, and well and most importantly, with the whole industry with employers unions and employer associations that have been of one mind. I just want to say this for the record, too, that uh not only appreciate what my colleagues done, uh, but also the work that's been done with those interagencies. Um, maybe I don't know if you have some insight that you want to share with us about where that's up to.
Yeah, well, Ms. Godin can keep going on some of the work of the senior officials network, but also the um uh we keep calling it the job. I'm gonna have to get someone to help remind me what the A stands for.
Um, agency working.
Working group. Um so and in relation to that, but you know, so I know for example that the ATO's on it, and they say they've got over 80 like investigations in the phoenixing construction at the moment, for example, it's got I think it's got some other statistics you could talk to.
Uh yes, so across the Commonwealth, there are currently 129 active investigations or cases in relation to the unlawful behaviour in the construction industry, and 47 matters have been commenced in either the Fair Work Commission or the courts. Um the uh matters we understand are spread between the AFP, um, the Fair Work Ombudsman, the general manager of the Fair Work Commission, the ATO, um, the ACC and APRA in terms of your regulators and and law enforcement. Um, in terms of the uh commonwealth uh senior officials forum itself that has very broad membership, um, as you would expect in terms of uh this department, the Department of Infrastructure, the Department of Finance, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Treasury, Industry, Home Affairs, and then ATO, Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Ombudsman, AFP, ACCC, APRA, ACIC, ASIC, and OSTRAC. Um, we do also invite other agencies to participate or or share information or insights as might be necessary or desirable. So we're looking at the next meeting inviting ASCOR, the skills and quality regulator in relation to some of the concerns with uh issuing of fraudulent qualifications in the construction industry, and we stay very flexible. Um we've also previously engaged with um DQ and Arena in relation to concerns that uh this behaviour might spread from uh construction into the clean energy industry um, for example, with that transition. So while we have a core membership, we're always very flexible in ensuring that we're um making those connections across the Commonwealth to try and get the best possible response.
Um returning to the opposition. I just note we were due to go to the Fair Work Commission at 12 and got a number of senators there. Um that was standing, Senator Kavasik. You have a call, Senator Keeney seeking. Senator Hume.