With Australia’s federal election looming and the battleground issue being the cost-of-living crisis, the Albanese government’s decision to tread softly around the CFMEU exposes it to criticism that its actions don’t match its rhetoric on fighting inflation.

The government, and the opposition for that matter, have made an art form of belting supermarkets for alleged price-gouging, but building costs have also been going up and remain 30 per cent higher than where things were before COVID.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s pledge to reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission if elected, saying the body failed to curtail CFMEU excesses when it existed.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Darren Howe

There are many things that contribute to the cost of building a house, an office tower or a large piece of infrastructure, just as there are many elements that feed into supermarket pricing.

And yes, while some of the elevated construction costs can be rightly placed at the feet of the construction union allegedly extorting money from building companies, the massive increase in the cost of materials (steel, timber, tiles) has been a bigger driver of........

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