Defiant CFMEU to rally in Brisbane after 21 leaders terminated

The CFMEU is set to rally in Brisbane in coming days in a show of force after being plunged into administration and leaders like Michael Ravbar, Jade Ingham and Kane Lowth sacked.

• Analysis: Sting taken out of union

The CFMEU will rally in Brisbane next week in a show of defiance after the militant construction union was plunged into administration and its leaders sacked.

It comes as the LNP calls on the state government to address the toxic culture of the CFMEU by removing union members from board positions and reinstating 24-hour right of entry notices to Queensland construction sites.

The union has called what’s expected to be a rowdy rally for 11am on Tuesday in Queens Gardens Park and is calling for a mass turnout of members and the wider public.

“We encourage all members of the community to join us. CFMEU members deserve control over their union, just like any other worker,” the union’s Queensland/Northern Territory division posted on its Facebook page overnight Friday with a fist pump emoji.

CFMEU Qld boss Michael Ravbar. Picture: Liam Kidston

“Together, we stand strong to defend the future of our families and our union.”

Similar rallies are expected across Australia, with the administration not preventing the CFMEU from protesting or conducting picket lines.

The post has attracted hundreds of likes and comments including “if you don’t show, you aren’t union” and “the workers united will never be defeated”.

It comes after the Albanese Government placed the CFMEU into administration on Friday after allegations the union had been infiltrated by criminals.

About 280 union officials were sacked, including 21 in Queensland led by state secretary Michael Ravbar.

Assistant state secretaries Jade Ingham and Kane Lowth were also turfed from the union’s Bowen Hills headquarters after Victorian barrister Mark Irving KC was named as administrator.

The Sunday Mail is not accusing Mr Ravbar, Mr Ingham or Mr Lowth of any criminal wrongdoing.

CFMEU’s Jade Ingham. Picture: Liam Kidston

The cuts sparked a spontaneous protest outside where dozens of workers gathered to repeatedly chant “our union”.

Mr Irving will have three years to clean up the union following damning allegations of criminal behaviour in southern states.

He will contract forensic accountants to trawl through the union’s finances, demand documents and compel people to assist his three year investigation.

The Queensland branch of the CFMEU has faced accusations of standover tactics and bullying of non-aligned workers on the state’s construction sites.

LNP Leader David Crisafulli said the state government was doing the bare minimum in helping the administration process to “creep over the election line”.

“To have CFMEU officials on state government boards, to continue to run a protection racket with 24 hour right of entry rules, all of those things point to the fact that nothing will change,” he said.

“It’ll be a roll out the carpet for the good old boys in the CFMEU to come back into town.”

Mr Crisafulli said he held no ill will towards CFMEU members, only the militant officials, and vowed to end the culture of bullying and intimidation for good if elected in October.

“I treat workers far differently than what I do to militant union officials in the CFMEU, they are the problem, not the workers,” he said.

“My commitment to the CFMEU is it’s game over for the thuggish behaviour.”

Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath refused to comment on the administration of the CFMEU, but said it “was the right thing to do”.

“We made sure that Queensland wasn’t going to be able to be used as a loophole and any action that the administrator takes from this point on is for the administrator to comment on,” she said.

Ms D’Ath said any possible impacts the administration would have on productivity was “all hypothetical”.

“As I say, the administrator’s got work to do, and it’s up to the administrator to talk about what they’re doing and what they think the consequences might be of that,” she said.

Asked what the potential implications would be on the government’s BPIC policy agreement, she said “I think you’re best to ask the relevant ministers on that.”