CFMEU administration: Who’s who in Queensland branch

As the federal government instigates a crackdown on the CFMEU across Australia, the hierarchy of the Queensland branch of the militant construction union is revealed.

As the federal government instigates a crackdown on the CFMEU across Australia, the hierarchy of the Queensland branch of the militant construction union is revealed.

CFMEU boss Michael Ravbar outside Parliament House in Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston,

Michael Ravbar – State Secretary

One of Queensland’s most powerful union bosses, Michael Ravbar has been state secretary of the CFMEU since 2008 and is also its national vice-president.

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.

A 2015 royal commission into trade unions recommended criminal charges be laid against Mr Ravbar and then-CFMEU Queensland president Dave Hanna over the destruction of tonnes of documents, but only Mr Hanna was prosecuted.

He was sentenced to nine months’ behind bars but copped more jail time in 2019 after being convicted of rape and corruption.

Premier Steven Miles overturned a ban on meetings with CFMEU representatives imposed by predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk in 2022 after unionists stormed the Department of Transport offices in Brisbane.

Mr Miles, who met with Mr Ravbar in March, told state parliament in May he would “not apologise” for meeting union representatives.

This week, under pressure over criminal allegations against the CFMEU’s Victorian branch, Mr Miles said he would not be accepting political donations from the union which has pumped more than $500,000 into Queensland Labor coffers since 2015.

Latest financial reports reveal the CFMEU’s Queensland branch raked in income of almost $10m in the 12 months to March 31, and finished the year with a $2.8m surplus.

Assistant State Secretary Jade Ingham. Picture: Liam Kidston

Jade Ingham – Former Assistant State Secretary

Mr Ravbar’s one-time right-hand man, Jade Ingham is notorious for abusive language and was branded a “bully” by the state opposition.

He was among 19 CFMEU officials who shut down two major Brisbane worksites in 2013 which led to almost $820,000 in fines. A Federal Court judge described the union’s conduct as “deliberate, flagrant and systematic” and said “coercion and intimidation contrary to law will not be tolerated”.

After Mr Ingham was controversially appointed to the Queensland Building and Construction Commission board in 2018, the opposition said it was proof the government “is owned wholly by the union, run by the union, for the union movement”.

Earlier this year, Mr Ingham defended strike action on the Cross River Rail project amid union demands that entry-level construction workers be paid $240,000 a year.

Mr Ingham said workers were “slaving” under a substandard agreement after the state government did a “dirty deal” with the Australian Workers Union.

After being sacked in August he revealed in October he would go "back on the tools".

CFMEU Assistant State Secretary Kane Lowth.

Kane Lowth – Assistant State Secretary

Before becoming one of Mr Ravbar’s lieutenants, Mr Lowth was a Townsville-based co-ordinator for the CFMEU.

He led union attacks on contractors building North Queensland Stadium, where striking workers were ordered back on-site by the Fair Work Commission in 2019.

Mr Lowth said he was “angry” at Public Works Minister and union ally Mick de Brenni for failing to deliver on his promise of better pay for stadium workers.

“He told the people here in Townsville that they would be paid proper rates, and he

just hasn’t delivered,” Mr Lowth said.

CFMEU president Royce Kupsch.

Royce Kupsch – President

Mr Kupsch is president and health and safety co-ordinator of the CFMEU’s Queensland and Northern Territory branch.

Last year, he was among seven current and former CFMEU officials and the union itself fined a total of $179,000 for breaking right-of-entry laws on the Bruce Highway upgrade on the Sunshine Coast.

The Federal Court heard that one of the officials, Kurt Pauls, had an “extensive history” of breaking workplace laws, including 19 contraventions of the Fair Work Act.

Mr Kupsch told the court that union bosses believed their actions were “not unlawful”.

In 2022, it was revealed that Mr Kupsch was earning almost $243,000 a year despite the union’s membership plummeting to record lows.

Originally published as CFMEU administration: Who’s who in Queensland branch