Election 2016: Union invites prime minister to ‘tell workers why they should be paid less’, as Malcolm Turnbull says wage rises cost jobs

Malcolm Turnbull has criticised a workplace deal granting a 15% pay rise over three years negotiated by the Victorian construction union. Turnbull said it was the sort of deal a tougher building watchdog would stop.

On 2GB on Wednesday in one of his few one-on-one interviews during the campaign, Turnbull was asked by host Alan Jones about the deal the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union Victorian construction branch had struck with employers and similar deals around the country.

Jones asked: “How do you think workers in marginal seats battling for any pay increase at all feel when they learn the average income of a carpenter on a unionised project is $163,000? These are on state government projects, so the end result is the taxpayer picks up the tab, who is going to stop these excesses?”

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Turnbull responded: “Well we will stop that.”

“But we can’t stop that unless we win this election, because unless we win this election we cannot get the Australian Building and Construction Commission legislation reinstated and we do that through the joint sitting,” he said.

“That’s why we’re having the double dissolution, we’re doing this because, unless we were miraculously to have a majority in the Senate, which I don’t expect, [it’s] the only way we can get the rule of law restored in the construction sector and the building code re-established.”

Turnbull said the building code, which bans coercion to win above-award pay rises, would “ensure you don’t get these shocking agreements between the CFMEU and builders”. He said builders were “basically stood over” by the construction union.

“I’m in Brisbane, if you talk to builders and developers here they will tell you on union jobs there are only three tiling companies in this city that the CFMEU will let on the site, no one else can get a look in.”

“The CFMEU stand over the builders and developers, and because the rule of law is not applied, they are able to get away with it. The rule of law did apply when we had the ABCC but the Labor party took it away because they act at the behest of these militant unions.”

Turnbull claimed most construction workers did not benefit from “the CFMEU stand-overs, most of them suffer ... because there is less construction and less opportunities”.

“If we had a more lawful construction sector, if the rule of law applied there would be more construction and more construction jobs, taxpayers would not be paying in excess of 30% more for projects like this.”

The CFMEU construction division national secretary, Dave Noonan, told Guardian Australia “there’s plenty of work ... there’s a lot of money being made in the construction industry and workers are entitled to a fair share of it”.

“The latest rounds of agreements are reached by negotiations and the union doesn’t apologise for negotiating hard, same as employers do. These are big corporations that are capable of protecting their economic interests and the union is there to advance the interests of its members.”

Noonan said construction workers needed higher wages because they “frequently spend weeks and months out of work. Very frequently your job finishes with the project you’re on.”

“We’re happy to extend the hand of friendship to Malcolm Turnbull. He can come down to a major construction site in any CBD around Australia and tell the workers why they should be paid less. I’m sure they’ll take that well from a millionaire [former] merchant banker.”

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Responding to claims Labor was beholden to unions, Noonan noted significant donations from property developers to the Liberal party.

Bill Shorten addressed the CFMEU Victorian branch’s attempts to win an 18% pay rise at a doorstop on Thursday. He said: “Ultimately what employers and employees negotiate is their business.”

Asked why he was not more critical of the CFMEU, Turnbull said: “I talk about it, but I’m acting. I dissolved both houses of parliament in order to put this bit of legislation on the agenda, to legislate it and make it happen.”