PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Resources and industry employer group, the Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) has welcomed the Coalition government’s move to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), saying it would help to secure the A$620-billion in new resource projects in the investment pipeline.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott plans to introduce a Bill to Parliament to restore the ABCC, with reports suggesting that the commission would be given greater ability to apply for court injunctions to end pickets, and to impose penalties on illegal picketers.

“Ensuring the rule of law is applied on mega resource sector construction sites is critical to delivering the A$620-billion worth of projects currently in Australia’s investment pipeline,” AMMA CEO Steve Knott said on Thursday.

He noted that the legislation demonstrated to the global investment community that the rule of law would be upheld in building productive infrastructure in Australia.

“It sends the message that the significant capital being invested into new projects into our country is not being taken for granted,” Knott added.

He noted that the extension of the ABCC’s jurisdiction to cover the construction of offshore oil and gas projects, which operate in an ultra-competitive and highly exposed marketplace, would also help ensure a stable and lawful environment in which more nationally significant projects could come to life.

AMMA also welcomed the move to address unlawful picketing at building sites, in particular so-called “community picketing” which Knott said were often coordinated by building unions to deliberately evade legal regulation of their industrial activities.

“The rights of our nation’s citizens to demonstrate peacefully in support of legitimate social and community concerns are too often undermined by a union ‘rent-a-crowd’ actually pushing industrial agendas and illegally disrupting important economic activity,” Knott said.

“It is well beyond time that those unions which regularly engage in anti-social militancy, thuggery and intimidation accept that they are not above the rule of Australia’s workplace laws.

“The restoration of a tough regulator on Australia’s construction sites is long overdue. The resource industry calls on all Members of Parliament to act quickly and decisively in supporting this legislation.”

However, worker union CFMEU has labelled the Bill discriminatory, saying that the powers proposed for the ABCC were “extreme”.

“The government apparently believes that discrimination against blue-collar workers in a particular industry is acceptable. If they had plans to do the same to other sectors of our community on the basis of gender, sexual orientation or ethnic background, there would be, justifiably, an outcry,” said the CFMEU’s Dave Noonan.