Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt is expected to face a grilling when his portfolios are picked apart in a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday.
The construction arm of the embattled union was placed into administration in August after allegations emerged of criminal conduct and organised crime links on job sites.
The federal coalition has suggested Labor's response did not go far enough and should have included reinstating the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
The construction watchdog was reintroduced in 2016 by the Turnbull government but abolished by Labor in February 2023, with its powers transferred to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The ombudsman has dozens of ongoing investigations into the commercial building and construction industry involving most branches of the CFMEU, its officials and employers.
Liberal senator Michaelia Cash was employment minister when the commission was revived and said it would prompt "cultural change" across the construction sector.
Mr Watt said bringing back the body would be "complete madness", pointing out much of the union's alleged offending occurred under its nose.
"The failures of the ABCC to bring about change to the construction sector were plain to see," he said.
"It was politicised for the gain of Malcolm Turnbull and the minister who was instrumental in removing him from office, Michaelia Cash.
"Under the coalition's watch we saw the lowest productivity since the 1960s and higher average days lost to industrial action."
He argued the Albanese government was cleaning up the construction sector by taking the "strongest action possible" against the union and developing a building and construction industry blueprint.
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