The Senate powerbroker warns if the union boss does not resign, the Coalition’s ‘ensuring integrity’ bill will pass

The Senate powerbroker Jacqui Lambie has returned to Canberra following the parliamentary break with one message.

Either union boss John Setka resigns, or the government’s controversial “ensuring integrity” bill will pass, with her vote.

“Everyone needs to put pressure on John Setka to resign as soon as possible, everyone needs to be doing that, from the unions down, they need to show some spine and force him to step down if he won’t do it himself, because otherwise, 1.4 million union members will feel it,” the senator told Guardian Australia.

“If John Setka doesn’t resign then those laws will pass. There is no room there for anything else. It is about time the meathead woke up to himself and realise the position he is placing people in.”

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The government plans on continuing negotiations with the crossbench on the bill, despite not having listed it for consideration in the next parliamentary sitting.

Christian Porter, who is leading the government’s charge on getting it through this parliament, after the bill failed under the last Senate, hopes to be in a position to have the numbers by November. But he needs either Centre Alliance, who want the bill to apply to the private sector as well, or Lambie, to have a shot.

Lambie has previously made it clear that Setka is her dealbreaker. Labor delayed a move to expel the embattled CFMMEU union boss from the party while it waited on the outcome to a court challenge Setka had brought against the party’s ability to enact the expulsion.

That was thrown out of court late last month, but the Labor executive is now waiting to see whether the union plans on appealing the decision. But Labor has no power to force Setka’s removal from the union itself, and while the ACTU boss, Sally McManus, has called on Setka to step down, his own union and allies have backed his right to stay.

Lambie said she was now out of patience and had personally met with Setka to tell him to leave.

“Labor knows where I stand, and I have said that to John Setka himself. I have had lunch with him in the last six weeks and have been very clear, I have spent about four or five hours talking to him, and I have been very clear with him about that,” she said.

“I have had enough courage to face him and tell him that, and now it is time for everyone else in the union movement to show some spine. Where have they been? There is no room for consideration, there is one choice and that is to resign.”

Lambie’s vote will also be crucial in the government’s bid to extend its cashless welfare card program, and its revived proposal to drug test welfare recipients.

On both, the Tasmanian senator says she will need to examine the bills in detail. But she repeated her demand that the government set up random drug testing of public servants and MPs if it was to have any luck in securing her vote.

“These people are supposed to be Australian leaders, but they are apparently untouchable, and if they think that there are no drug problems in those areas, then they are kidding themselves,” she said.

“They should be subject to the exact same conditions they are trying to impose on those on welfare. Once they have passed that, once they have shown they are prepared to put themselves on the same random testing regime, I will have a look at what else they are proposing.”

The government plans on continuing its ‘whose side are you on’ attack on Labor, as it seeks to wedge the opposition on its welfare plans, and legislation to set down mandatory minimum sentencing for sex offenders charged under federal laws.

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Labor is yet to come to a final position on the sex offender legislation, which would run against its own platform of standing against mandatory sentencing, based on what it considers stripping the judiciary of discretionary powers.

Caucus will meet early this week to decide whether it “fights or folds” on the matter, against Peter Dutton’s enthusiasm to force a battle.

The Greens senator Larissa Waters will bring on a Senate vote to establish a federal corruption probe body “with teeth” after receiving advice from the parliamentary library that both the cases of Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop’s new post-parliamentary roles would have received more scrutiny, as would any failures of MPs to properly declare financial interests.

The government committed to establishing a federal corruption body before the last election, but its proposal would see any such investigations and corresponding court cases carried out in secret.

The Greens, the majority of the crossbench and Labor all support a stronger federal corruption watchdog, but do not have the numbers in the House to force the government to act.