James Campbell: Government is the only winner in the John Setka saga

The ease with which Anthony Albanese moved John Setka’s suspension from the Labor Party shows what can be achieved when there is a will. But what most of us will be asking is: why has it taken so long, writes James Campbell.

The ALP needs the John Setka psychodrama like a hole in the head.

A month after Bill Shorten went down to Scott Morrison, and with no sign of an end to Labor’s navel gazing, along comes the CFMMEU boss to remind everyone how power works in the people’s party.

The ease with which Anthony Albanese moved Setka’s suspension from the party — with expulsion to follow — shows what can be achieved when there is a will.

The question most of us will be asking is: why has it taken so long? The boss of the union’s construction division in Australia’s most progressive state has been a standout performer for industrial lawlessness for many years, as the Liberals have never tired of pointing out. With, it must be said, very limited success.

The reality, however, is all sorts of people in the ALP who should have known better have tolerated him because he was useful to them.

To outsiders, unions appear to be collectivist organisations but inside them, their secretaries, elected directly by members, are effectively laws unto themselves.

CFMMEU state secretary John Setka with his wife, Emma Walters. Picture: David Crosling

Most importantly for people who want to be important in the ALP playground, it is they, not their branch committees of management, who decide who gets to be the state conference delegates that decide who sits on the Public Office Selection Committee, which, in turn decides who gets to be a Labor MP.

And on the Left side of the ALP the CFMMEU, particularly its construction division, is the biggest and richest game in town.

When Setka walked out of the Socialist Left last year and took his votes with him, it changed the balance of power in Victorian Labor.

Expelling Setka from the ALP doesn’t change that equation.

To remove his influence requires Setka’s removal from office or the disaffiliation of his branch from the ALP, something the Right would love to achieve.

On the face of it you would assume the numbers inside the union would be there to terminate Setka’s reign. But even with the Labor movement bleeding and its leaders basically begging him to clear off, there are still voices being raised in his support.

Bizarrely, it’s not Setka Maritime Union president Christy Cain is calling on to resign but Albanese, for seeking his Labor Party expulsion based on “false allegations”.

If Cain’s views are any reflection of the views of the construction division’s members, you have to wonder if the removal of Setka by the union’s national forum will be the end of the matter.

You have to wonder if the removal of John Setka by the union’s national forum will be the end of the matter. Picture: AAP

What, one wonders, would there be to stop him running for — and winning — his job back at the next union election?

Who knows who in the Labor Party might be prepared to hold their nose and back him in such an endeavour if it meant the union’s votes moved into a different column at Labor’s state conference?

MORE JAMES CAMPBELL

Behind the increasingly desperate calls for Setka to do the right thing and disappear is the realisation that even if it doesn’t have the stomach to try to deregister the union, the newly re-elected Morrison Government would love for him to hang around so that he can be the poster boy for any plans it might have to legislate for a fit-and-proper-person test to be applied to union leaders.

Luckily for the government, from what we can see of Setka’s mindset, with the support of his wife, he’s happy to oblige.

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