THE nation's newly appointed building watchdog has sought to recast the organisation's image.

Leigh Johns has promised to help recover employee entitlements and implement an "all-of-government action plan" to eliminate sham contracting in the construction industry.

Leigh Johns, who took over from John Lloyd as Australian Building and Construction commissioner last week, also promised to personally preside over examinations where the organisation uses its coercive powers.

While Mr Johns said the ABCC would continue to be a "tough cop on the beat", he intended to publish a "litigation policy" in the interests of being open and transparent.

"Having regard to the matters presently under investigation and being litigated by the ABCC, it is clear to me that the ABCC continues to operate in, and seeks to regulate, a commercial sector that continues to require cultural reform," he said.



The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union said the change of direction followed widespread criticism that the ABCC had been "biased" against workers.

"The ABCC has failed to prosecute even one employer for underpaying workers or ripping off workers' entitlements since it was established in 2005, despite widespread rorting by employers in the construction industry," the national secretary of the union's construction division, Dave Noonan, said.

"This attempt to give the ABCC an extreme makeover does not change the fact that the construction industry laws enacted by John Howard remain unacceptable and un-Australian. Until the Labor government honours its pre-2007 election promise to abolish the ABCC and end discrimination against construction workers, construction workers will continue their campaign for equality before the law."

Appearing before a Senate estimates committee hearing last night, Mr Johns said he wanted to "redefine a broader role for the ABCC with a respectful acknowledgment of the wide range of interests in the building and construction industry".

He wrote to the Fair Work Ombudsman last week to terminate the longstanding practice of the ABCC referring claims of underpayments incurred by building workers to the FWO.

"We will not be turning away any citizen in the building and construction industry," Mr Johns said.

The ABCC intends to host a government and industry round-table aimed at eliminating sham contracting in the building and construction sector.