With the notorious union boss John Setka going, a local should replace him

All sorts of chaos was predicted when John Setka, the Victorian head of the militant CFMEU took over SA as well. Now he is retiring and there are call for a local to replace him.

A South Australian should be chosen to replace the controversial John Setka as head of the notorious CFMEU construction union to help ease growing tension on building sites in the CBD, according to the Masters Builders SA.

Chef executive Will Frogley said he hoped the impending retirement of Victorian John Setka as secretary of the CFMEU in SA would help repair relations in the industry.

“What I think would be much better is that if the head of the CFMEU in South Australia was actually someone who’s on the ground here full time, and understands that the local industry is very different to Victoria,’’ Mr Frogley said.

John Setka CFMEU leader pictured in Adelaide. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Mr Frogley said while he had many disagreements with CFMEU assistant state secretary Marcus Pare, they had a “relationship where we can always pick up the phone and have a chat to each other’’.

“ I think if someone like Marcus had proper control and wasn’t just told what to do out of Victoria, the relationship between union and employees in South Australia would be more positive.’’

Mr Setka officially took over the state branch in August 2022. He was already state secretary of Victoria and Tasmania and arrived with a reputation that he was a leader of the most unreasonable, most aggression union in Australia.

Before he took over, Mr Setka had referred to the SA branch as “weak c****’’.

Premier Peter Malinauskas returned a $125,000 donation given by the CFMEU to state Labor but yesterday declined to comment beyond saying: “I’ve never met, nor spoken to John Setka.’’

The return of the donation occurred after cars at the Master Builders head office, including Mr Frogley’s, were vandalised.

Mr Frogley said Mr Setka had rung to apologise for the vandalism and told him that he hates “this kind of behaviour and no way was it ordered by me’’.

Mr Setka announced this week he would step down from his position after 12 years leading the union and 38 years as an official.

When he to took over the SA branch, many in the local industry feared an outbreak of high wage demands and an upsurge in industrial action.

Mr Frogley said builders in the CBD had felt threatened by the CFMEU and were told they could only use union-approved subcontractors and that non-union members were regularly intimidated.

“The other thing that’s probably changed is that you’re not a CFMEU member now and you work in the CBD, your life is going to be made quite unpleasant,’’ he said.

“Frankly, the builders and major builders and subcontractors at the moment haven’t really been pushing back because they’re afraid of the union in the current environment. Everyone feels like they’ve lost control over their business.’’

The CFMEU were contacted for comment.