Master Builders Australia and a number of business groups have joined the fight against Australia’s “militant” union movement.

Master Builders Australia has slammed the CFMEU in particular, in it submission to the government’s Competition Policy Review.

MBA wants the head of the Fair Work national building watchdog, Nigel Hadgkiss, to have a greater ability to investigate industrial tactics.

It is particularly critical of the use of ‘secondary boycotts’ to influence work sites and projects.

Secondary boycotting involves punishing one company or employer by boycotting another, such as a main supplier or other crucial part of a project.

MBA describes secondary boycotts as a “brutal industrial tactic’’ used to inflict maximum financial damage and “either make builders and suppliers hostage to union demands or to send them to the wall”, according to News Corp media outlets.

CFMEU leader Dave Noonan says Master Builders has joined the push for the FWBC’s powers to increase because it has become a “partisan” supporter for the LNP and business community.

Acting Master Builders chief executive Richard Calver says the group wants Fair Work’s power increased to fully enforce secondary boycott laws.

He suggests moving the enforcement responsibilities from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to a reinstated Australian Building and Construction Commission, to ensure “a more robust enforcement of anti-secondary boycott provisions”.

Fair Work’s Nigel Hadgkiss is considered most likely to head a reinstated ABCC, if a bill in support of the reprisal is successful.