Liberal Senate candidate Zed Seselja has hit back at the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union after its local branch declared it would actively campaign against him in the federal election.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Seselja said the union was betraying its members by backing Greens candidate Simon Sheikh and his party's ''anti-development'' agenda.
The union says it is not backing any of the main parties in the election, but its stated aim is to deny the Coalition control of the Senate and the ACT branch will use its considerable resources to campaign against Mr Seselja.
The union's tactics will be to remind voters of past job cuts under Coalition governments and to link Mr Seselja as much as possible to his party leader Tony Abbott, who has emerged in research as an unpopular figure with Canberra's voters.
But the union has conceded that Mr Seselja, the favourite to win the territory's second Senate spot in September, is ''not wildly unpopular'' with the ACT electorate.
The union's high-profile ACT branch secretary, Dean Hall, says the campaign will hammer home the message that a Liberal victory on September 14 will be bad for Canberra's economy in all sectors.
Mr Hall said the focus would be on Liberal public sector job cuts of 1996 to 1998 and the knock-on effect through the economy.
''Over 100 extra businesses went bankrupt and house prices plummeted,'' Mr Hall said. ''My members can't afford this happening again.
''This is why I'm running a campaign to ask people not to vote for Zed Seselja.''
Mr Seselja infuriated the union this month when he called in a Legislative Assembly debate for a return of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the union's most hated enemy.
Mr Hall believed it was possible for Mr Sheikh to beat the former Canberra Liberals leader. ''People might not realise it, but Canberra is the closest Senate race in the country ,'' Mr Hall said.''But if the Liberals win here, they could have complete control of both houses of Parliament.
''If only a few thousand people switch their vote away from the Liberals we can stop them having complete control and make sure they can't ram through their extreme job cuts agenda.''
But the Liberal candidate accused the union of selling out its membership by supporting the Greens.
''The Greens have an extreme anti-development, anti-building industry agenda,'' Mr Seselja said.
''Any union which supports the Greens is therefore selling out their members, as Greens' policy puts construction jobs at risk.''
The union's national leaders met Mr Sheikh and his party leader Christine Milne last week but the union continues to insist no decision have been made on party political funding for the election.
