Peter Dutton says the coalition will bring forward laws for the Australian Building and Construction Commission to monitor the industry, when parliament next meets in August,

It comes as the CFMEU’s construction division has been accused of taking kickbacks, being linked to organised crime and employing standover tactics on worksites, with federal Labor cutting ties with the union on Thursday.

Mr Dutton said the construction watchdog, which was wound down in February 2023, needed to be brought back to ensure standards were kept in the industry.

“We hope the government can support it, because they abolished it at the request of the CFMEU,” he told Nine’s Today program on Friday.

“The ABCC charged dozens and dozens of CFMEU officials over the last eight years.”

The opposition also flagged it would bring the commission back if it wins government at the next federal election.

Moves are under way for an administrator to be appointed to oversee the CFMEU in light of the latest allegations.

Labor has indefinitely suspending affiliation between the construction division and the NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian branches of the party.

It will not accept political donations or fees from the division in line with announcements from some state counterparts.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions, the nation’s peak union body, has also suspended affiliation with the CFMEU’s construction division.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the government had acted swiftly upon hearing about the crime links with the union.

He said getting the construction watchdog running again would not solve the issue.

“(The opposition) clutch their pearls and act all shocked and outraged. Now the reality is that when they are in power, they go after trade unions, they don’t go after crooks. We want to go after crooks,” he said.

“(The CFMEU) is not just a couple of rotten apples, they have developed a culture of allowing themselves to be infiltrated by elements of organised crime.”

Meanwhile, Nationals Senator Susan McDonald urged people who had suffered at the hands of the CFMEU to speak out.

“I’ve spoken privately to individual workers and company heads who outlined the intimidatory tactics and outrageous demands by union heavies but they didn’t want to go public in case they missed out on future work,” the Queensland senator said.

Independent MP Dai Le said she had also heard of standover tactics being used in her Western Sydney community, with people from non-English speaking background being forced to sign up and become members.

“There’s a lot of threats that I have heard of in the construction industry that happens out here in south-western Sydney,” she told ABC TV.

“They were too scared to raise it because they said there were obviously people who were a part of the colourful bikie gangs.”