Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie slams CFMEU industrial action

Jarrod Bleijie has declared the government will fight fire with fire against the CFMEU after they brought Bisbane to a standstill last week.

CFMEU members and supporters block Campbell St in Brisbane’s Bowen Hills on Friday. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

• ‘Sack them all!’: What you said on CFMEU

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has slammed the protest actions of the CFMEU last week, stating he is “not intimidated” by the union’s pattern of “repeated bullying, intimidation and fear”.

Members of the militant union took strike action on Thursday and Friday across Bowen Hills and Fortitude Valley in response to the High Court’s decision to uphold the federal government’s administration of the CFMEU’s construction arm.

On Friday, one journalist was labelled a “media b-tch” while reporting on the union action.

Speaking to Channel 9’s 4BC, Mr Bleijie said the state government would not be tolerating the union’s behaviour.

Channel 7 journalist Georgie Chumbley was surrounded and heckled by protesters. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

“It’s not on. Everyone needs safe workplaces, and journalists need to be able to work safely,” he told 4BC.

“I think what Queenslanders saw last week by the CFMEU is just a pattern of repeated bullying, intimidation and fear that the CFMEU have been doing for years and years.”

The new state government is not going to cop it, he said.

Mr Bleijie said the state government had been working to combat the CFMEU in a number of ways since the LNP were elected last year.

“If I let it get to me, I wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing in the state to combat these issues in the CFMEU. You’ve got to be strong and you’ve got to combat it, and we will,” he said.

Jarrod Bleijie says the state government is not intimidated by the CFMEU. Picture: Richard Walker

“We reintroduced 24-hour right of entry laws, which means CFMEU can’t just rock up to a construction site anymore without 24 hours’ notice.

“We hung up the bat phone, which was the CFMEU direct line into the Office of Industrial Relations that Grace Grace used to have open for her. I hung it up. It’s gone.

“We removed BPIC, the best practice industry principles. I sacked all the CFMEU board members from all the positions in workplace, health and safety.

“Grace Grace and the Labor Party backs the CFMEU. I sack the CFMEU, so I’m not intimidated by the CFMEU.”