‘Reign of terror must end’: 21 CFMEU operatives purged in Qld

Powerful office holders in Qld’s CFMEU branch, including Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham, have been purged by the federal administrator appointed to clean up the union.

• Analysis: Feds take sting out of union

Powerful office holders in Queensland’s militant CFMEU branch have been purged by the federal administrator tasked with cleaning up the union.

The Courier-Mail can reveal 21 positions in the CFMEU Queensland/NT branch were on Friday terminated immediately after Victorian barrister Mark Irving KC was named federal administrator.

CFMEU Queensland state secretary Michael Ravbar and assistant state secretaries Jade Ingham and Kane Lowth were the highest-profile exits from the union’s Bowen Hills headquarters.

It 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 CFMEU across Australia following damning allegations of criminal behaviour in southern states.

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

There is no suggestion that those individuals who have lost their position were involved in criminal conduct or any other wrongdoing.

With the stroke of a pen the fate of some 280 CFMEU workers across Australia were sealed when Mr Irving took control.

CFMEU boss Michael Ravbar is out. Picture: Liam Kidston,

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

Mr Ravbar did not respond to The Courier-Mail’s request for comment and the union’s Queensland and Northern Territory president Royce Kupsch, who was also sacked, said there was “no chance” he would talk before hanging up the phone.

The state government introduced legislation this week to give Mr Irving power to act if the Queensland CFMEU breached industrial law – such as preventing non-aligned workers from entering worksites.

He has the power to require any current or former CFMEU Queensland agent to produce documents and compel a person to assist their investigation.

Anyone who hinders the administrator could face up to two years’ jail.

Protests and picket lines on worksites can continue, however, with the union’s industrial powers unchanged.

Jade Ingham. Picture: Liam Kidston

Queensland Major Contractors Association chief executive officer Andrew Chapman welcomed Mr Irving’s appointment.

“The CFMEU’s reign of terror throughout the construction industry in Queensland must end now with this administration,” he said.

“Those that have undertaken, or pulled the strings of delegates and officials in the CFMEU, to conduct the appalling behaviour of intimidation, harassment and bullying throughout the construction sector must be held to account for the mental and economic impacts that they have wrought on the industry and workers.

“The administrator must not be hindered in their investigations and be able to get to the bottom of all the issues that have been raised about the CFMEU and their conduct.”

Mr Ravbar went on the attack in a union Facebook post earlier this month after the Federal Government announced it was putting the CFMEU into administration, slamming the move as “outrageous”.

“It’s obvious that this is just a political vendetta from the federal government on the CFMEU,” he said.

CFMEU signage near the Star Casino in George Street, Brisbane.

“People can see it … it’s just a political attack on a union that’s been strong and successful.”

Mr Ravbar said there had been two royal commissions into the CFMEU in recent decades, including forensic audits of 700 staff and their families.

“What did they find in two years in regards to criminality and corruption in both royal commissions? Zero.” he said.

“It’s just sad that we’ve gone down this path … people have now been let off the lead and (are) going out making these outrageous claims.”

Mr Ravbar also rejected claims that the powerful union’s wage demands, and cosy deals with the state government on major projects, had sent construction costs soaring.

He blamed factors including Covid, poor weather and supply chain issues for the cost increases and said suggesting it was the workers’ fault was also “outrageous”.

Mr Ravbar has been state secretary of the CFMEU since 2008 and is also its national vice-president.

A CFMEU member pictured at its Bowen Hills headquarters on Friday.

Over the years under his leadership, he and the union have been hit with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for unlawful activity, including $225,000 last year for repeatedly stopping work on the Cross River Rail project to host barbecues about its industry superannuation fund.

Mr Ravbar was personally fined almost $10,000.

In 2022, he and the union were fined a total of more than $130,000 for breaching right of entry rules on the Queensland Performing Arts Centre upgrade at South Bank.

Federal Circuit Court judge Gregory Egan blasted the CFMEU as a “rogue union” with “an appalling and disgraceful record” of breaching industrial laws.

In recent days, the CFMEU’s Queensland and NT branch has been posting Facebook videos of members attacking the administration move and critics of the union.

“The fact that we’re going into administration and none of us have been spoken to yet … everybody in a pretty shirt gets a say in it, when we’re the ones down here doing the hard yards getting dirty, building this place from the ground up,” a traffic controller named Ebony said in one video.

“It’s appalling … we should get a say in this. My message to the Labor Party is, what are youse doing? We helped you guys be where you are today, you’re supposed to be here to help us. We are Labor.

“The fact that you guys basically have turned against us, it’s not right. You’re here for us, you’re not here for them. You’re just sitting up there in offices while we’re getting dirty and breaking our back, and people are dying (on worksites) every god damn day.

“What’s the Labor Party even for? The fact that they want to bring an administrator into our union to take over the people that have built this union is a disgrace.”

Originally published as ‘Reign of terror must end’: 21 CFMEU operatives purged in Qld