The criminal prosecution of the wrongdoers is one thing but denying the democratic rights of union members to choose their own membership and firing effective organisers who had nothing to do with the corruption is a blatant attack on the rights of workers.

While those of us on the progressive side of politics have been disappointed by the rightward drift of the Labor party for decades the anti-CFMEU legislation represents a profound abandonment of its historic mission to stand with the working class and trade unions.