The Liberal leadership saga has overshadowed growing unrest within the Government over industrial relations, which the Prime Minister will again avoid this week. Some backbenchers fear Julia Gillard’s proposed industrial relations legislation is too similar to Work Choices. Last Tuesday, while Brendan Nelson was being dumped, New South Wales senator Steve Hutchins was telling a restive Labor caucus that the legislation was “Work Choices lite”.

The Australian Building and Construction Commission has been a spectacular success. A recent by Econtech found that the establishment of the ABCC led to a dramatic improvement in industry productivity with significant benefits for the national economy. Without the ABCC, gross domestic product would have been 1.5 per cent lower and the consumer price index would have been 1.2 per cent higher. Overall, Econtech found an annual economic gain of $5.1 billion.

Hostilities between the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the unions are set to reignite, with a unionist due to face court on charges of assaulting and threatening to kill two construction commission inspectors. Police are expected to allege that Brian George Shearer assaulted and threatened two ABCC inspectors. Mr Shearer is expected to plead not guilty to the charges, which, if proven, could land him in jail for up to 10 years.

While the construction union last night said the Australian Building and Construction Commission had a record of attempting to smear building workers with false allegations, Industrial Relations Minister Julia Gillard said the abuse of ABCC inspectors was “grossly unacceptable” and that the industry’s “tough cop” would be retained.

While the messages are various, the stands taken by Kevin Rudd this week will send a few shudders through state government and the unions. They’ll also suggest to the “battlers” that on some things, not all that much has changed from the former Howard government.

As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his deputy Julia Gillard began the hard sell of tough new measures to improve school standards, the trade unions continued to flex their muscles behind the scenes over a number of policy measures.

The head of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, John Lloyd, dismissed union claims that his investigators acted as secret police or that he should wind back his activities given that Labor won last November’s election. “My role is to ensure that the ABCC carries out its functions in accordance with the act,” he said.

Rudd and Gillard will not under any circumstances break Labor’s pre-election promises, and certainly not at this early stage. Anyway, the stand-off over the building industry watchdog could turn out to be an electoral plus, as the militant construction union has a reputation for thuggery and is hardly popular.

Union leaders have unveiled plans for a three-week advertising blitz highlighting the fact that the Australian Building and Construction Commission is empowered to fine individual workers up to $22,000 for stopping work, or jail them for six months for simply refusing to answer questions about union activities.

Rebel Labor MPs have raised concerns about the Australian Building Construction Commission, as well as the welfare payment plan. But the Government defended both measures, arguing that it had flagged the welfare reforms in the May budget and that it had promised to retain the ABCC until 2010 at last year’s election.