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Government hits back at union ads

Government ministers have hit back at CFMEU ads which claim ice addicts will have more rights than construction workers if a watchdog is reinstated.

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Source: AAP


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A union advertising campaign that claims ice addicts have more rights than construction workers will have under a building industry watchdog have been labelled hysterical and disgusting by the Turnbull government.

The CFMEU has begun airing the 30-second advertisements to coincide with parliament returning early to consider restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Attorney-General George Brandis said the commission's powers were the same as those contained in existing Fair Work laws created by Labor and available to other regulators such as ASIC.

Senator Brandis described the ads as hysterical and false.

"It goes to show the depths to which the CFMEU will stoop in trying to protect their own position in this industry that the best they can do is run a campaign which is utterly dishonest," he told ABC radio.

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Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the ads were a political stunt.

"I think they're quite frankly disgusting," she told ABC TV.


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