Elements of the ACT's procurement system that give unions too much influence over who wins awarded contracts are indefensible and must be immediately scrapped, the opposition says.
Opposition Leader Mark Parton said the government's Secure Local Jobs Code should be abandoned because it had prioritised unions' interests rather than ensuring workers and businesses were protected.
"Operation Kingfisher, and the Campbell Primary School procurement at its heart, showed how special relationships and back-door channels can influence live tenders," Mr Parton said.
"The Secure Local Jobs Code, the UnionsACT [memorandum of understanding], and Chris Steel's 2023 ethical treatment of workers evaluation direction have institutionalised that privilege.
"It is time to end it."
The ACT Integrity Commission's Operation Kingfisher found the then Education Directorate head and deputy chief minister's chief of staff had engaged in serious corrupt conduct that provided a backdoor to prioritise the interests of a major union in a procurement process.
The findings prompted Yvette Berry to resign as deputy chief minister and leave cabinet, despite no findings being made against her.
Integrity Commissioner Michael Adams KC later said it would be "unreal" to think the CFMEU's intervention that led to its preferred contractor being handed work on the primary school upgrade despite it costing more was the first time they had tried.
Mr Adams criticised the memorandum of understanding but said the Secure Local Jobs Code "does seem to be a reasonable approach to a difficult problem".
The CFMEU had circumvented the code in the Campbell school case because it did not actually allow the union to have a direct say over a procurement, unlike the earlier memorandum, he told a parliamentary inquiry.
Opposition private sector employment and industrial relations spokesman Ed Cocks said the current system was indefensible.
"In the wake of a ministerial resignation, the Campbell Primary findings, and damaging estimates revelations, Canberra cannot continue with a procurement framework that privileges special interests over fair competition and value for money," Mr Cocks said.
"No union, employer group or political office should have a privileged route into live tenders."
The Secure Local Jobs Code, introduced in 2018, requires firms being awarded government contracts over $200,000 to hold a certificate showing they comply with industrial laws and allow union representation for their employees.
Asked if it was appropriate UnionsACT and the CFMEU still sat on the code's advisory council, Industrial Relations Minister Michael Pettersson told budget estimates: "I think the interests of workers deserve appropriate representation, and I think it is appropriate that workers put forward who they think their representative should be."
Mr Pettersson, who has not been responsible for the Secure Local Jobs Code since the cabinet reshuffle triggered by Ms Berry's resignation in July, has been criticised by the opposition for continuing to remain a member of the CFMEU.
"I'm a very proud member of the trade union movement. I think it's a very good thing. I wish more members of the Assembly were," Mr Pettersson said after his union membership was questioned by the opposition in estimates.
A parliamentary inquiry earlier this year recommended the government commission an independent review of the code to assess if it was effective.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr had signed a memorandum of understanding with UnionsACT in March 2015 that said a list of tenderers for each government contract would be provided to UnionsACT.
The memorandum said unions would have 10 working days after receiving the list to advise the government on its views about whether the applicant met work, health and safety, employee and industrial relations obligations.
Deputy Chief Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith earlier this month told budget estimates she thought the memorandum would be phased out when the Secure Local Jobs Code was introduced.
Ms Stephen-Smith told the Assembly in 2018 when she introduced the bill to establish the code that the memorandum would end.
