Master Builders SA chief executive Will Frogley claims CFMEU trying to assassinate his character after Incolink email leaked

Master Builders SA chief Will Frogley says he always opposed attempts to merge workers’ entitlement funds BIRST and Victoria’s Incolink.

Master Builders SA chief Will Frogley says attempts to “assassinate my character’’ can be linked to his calling out the allegedly “corrupt behaviour of the CFMEU’’.

Mr Frogley has strongly refuted claims that he said he would support a merger between the SA workers’ entitlement fund BIRST and the Victorian equivalent Incolink if he was promised a seat on the board of the new entity.

“This is a disgraceful attempt to assassinate my character by people who know I never supported the proposed Incolink takeover of BIRST,’’ Mr Frogley said.

“I am being attacked simply because I have consistently called out the corrupt behaviour of the CFMEU, and because I have frustrated building unions by blocking the entry of the CFMEU’s preferred fund Incolink into SA.’’

The Sunday Mail reported that a leaked email from Incolink chief Erick Locke claimed the merger had fallen over because Mr Frogley had demanded a seat on the Incolink board.

Mr Frogley has strongly refuted claims he would support a merger between the SA workers’ entitlement fund BIRST and Incolink if he was promised a seat on the board. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

One of the board members of Incolink was John Setka, the now former head of the CFMEU.

Mr Frogley said Master Builders and industry representatives had four of the eight seats on the BIRST board, a system which “has worked well here’’.

“Out of the blue last year, a Victorian fund (Incolink), which counted John Setka among its board members, approached BIRST and said ‘we want to take you over’.

“My first question, ‘SA industry has four seats on the BIRST board, how many would we have on the Incolink board’.”

“When the answer came back ‘zero’ it became completely obvious that the Victorian CFMEU and Incolink wanted to remove all SA industry oversight of how SA worker’s entitlement money is managed.’’

Mr Frogley said the end result would have been $20 million in SA workers’ entitlement money being sent interstate to the “Victorian CFMEU to fund the type of (allegedly) illegal and corrupt behaviour we saw exposed in the media earlier this month’’.

“At that point I, and every other industry representative on the BIRST board, told them to stick their takeover proposal where the sun doesn’t shine,’’ he said.