Miles to push ahead with CFMEU crackdown, regardless of police findings

Queensland Premier Steven Miles says he will leave it to police to determine whether CFMEU workers were behind an attack on a picket-crossing Cross River Rail worker outside his home this week, but will push ahead with proposed legislation to bring the union into line regardless.

Fou Ah-Lam was walking to his car on Wednesday morning when he was set upon from behind by two masked attackers armed with a metal pole.

In May, Ah-Lam had been filmed trying to cross a CFMEU picket line to go to work, in an incident that devolved into a violent brawl between striking CFMEU members and non-union workers.

He told police he believed the two men who attacked him on Wednesday were members of the CFMEU and had attacked him in retaliation for crossing the picket line.

Speaking at Hamilton on Friday morning, Miles said while he did not want to pre-empt the police investigation, the incident went to “that wider culture that we’ve all heard stories about”.

Miles said his government would work with its federal counterparts to ensure legislation at both levels were complementary and would “meet their full effect” to have power over the Queensland branch of the CFMEU, along with the national body.

The picket line outside the Roma Street Cross River Rail site on Tuesday.Credit: Peter Wallis

“Now there are clear allegations, a police investigation and these actions at an Australian government level and I don’t think we want to miss out on the opportunity for those actions to address the concerns that have been raised about the CFMEU,” he said.

The CFMEU has denied any involvement in the attack, and said it was “outrageous” that Cross River Rail contractors CPB was laying the blame at its feet.

“The CFMEU has no knowledge of, or involvement in, the alleged assault,” CFMEU Queensland/Northern Territory secretary Michael Ravbar said.

The union has been taking disruptive industrial action on the rail sites as part of a campaign for a new pay deal with CPB, as its southern branches have been mired in scandal, including revelations of infiltration by bikies and organised criminals, intimidation and allegations of corruption.

State LNP leader David Crisafulli on Friday repeated his claim the CFMEU was a “militant union”, saying “there’s been a protection racket run for them and Queenslanders are now seeing the result of it”.

“For the past 10 years, weak laws have enabled a gangster’s paradise when it comes to the CFMEU. The government has turned a blind eye to criminal behaviour and it must stop.

“It has to stop. Queenslanders want things to change and it won’t change unless government changes.

“If I’m given the privilege of leading the state, it won’t be because of the CFMEU. I won’t owe a thing to the CFMEU. It’ll be for working Queenslanders, mums and dads.”