Opposition questions CFMEU's Zach Smith's suitability on construction forum

It comes in light of his recent evidence to the ACT Integrity Commission over a controversial local public school project.

The CFMEU national and ACT branch secretary was appointed in July to the National Construction Industry Forum, and Liberal senator Slade Brockman raised it in a Senate estimates hearing.

Senator Brockman described Mr Smith, who gave evidence in September, as being "under investigation" by the ACT Integrity Commission. However, the commission's Operation Kingfisher is focusing on actions by public officials within the ACT Education Directorate.

It is looking into whether the officials failed to exercise their official functions "honestly and/or impartially" over the 2019-20 Campbell Primary School Modernisation Project.

Senator Brockman also put forward that Mr Smith was facing "numerous Fair Work Act breaches" in the Federal Court and he questioned the due diligence tests for positions down by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

"Minister, would it be appropriate for someone who is found to have breached the Fair Work Act to provide advice on how to improve building and construction industry culture?" the West Australian senator asked.

"You would find a Federal Court judge describing Mr Smith's behaviour as acting in an improper manner as a holder of an entry permit by swearing and acting aggressively towards a site manager, which he goes on to say, which had no place on a building site."

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But Senator Murray Watt, representing Employment Minister Tony Burke, defended Mr Smith from the opposition's attack.

"I heard the officials take you through the due diligence tests are the tests that were undertaken. And I haven't heard anything yet that suggests that Mr Smith didn't pass those tests," he said.

"There was a bankruptcy check. There was a company directorship check. There was some checking to see whether someone was banned or disqualified particularly as a director, whether they've got criminal convictions.

"They were the tests, it would appear, of who is an appropriate person. And again, I haven't heard you suggest that Mr Smith or any of the other appointees haven't passed those tests."

Mr Smith has rejected Senator Brockman's assertion as "completely absurd and laughable".

"I haven't been accused of any wrongdoing. I was more than willing to give evidence when asked," he said in a statement to The Canberra Times.

"The idea that the construction union's national secretary shouldn't be on the national construction industry forum is as silly as saying no-name senators I disagree with shouldn't be at Senate estimates.

"We've got a cost-of-living crisis, workers dying because of engineered stone and the most serious housing shortage in living memory but this is the nonsense obscure Liberal senators are focusing on."

The ACT Integrity Commission has one more week of public hearings in December, before it moves to finalising its findings.