CFMEU Qld report: Ministers gobsmacked at slide into violence

CFMEU officials believed they should write the laws, control public servants and relentlessly abused Labor ministers, a shocking 45-page report has revealed.

Former state secretary Micheal Ravbar was blamed for the Queensland-NT branch’s slide into violence.

CFMEU officials relentlessly abused Labor ministers, believed they should write laws and warned public servants “you’re now working for us”, a shocking new report reveals.

Persistent attacks prompted one minister to tell staff not to answer CFMEU phone calls and Queensland police insisted another law-maker upgrade security.

The explosive new detail about the stunning grip of the CFMEU on the former Labor government was exposed in anti-corruption expert Geoffrey Watson SC’s probe of the Queensland and Northern Territory branch.

“When Labor recovered government in Queensland in February 2015 the CFMEU seems to have regarded itself as having taken over administering industrial relations,” he wrote.

Mr Watson encountered gobsmacked ministers confused about the brutality of the CFMEU and warned it was sliding into violence under the likely direction of state secretary Michael Ravbar.

Mr Watson said Labor ministers confided to him it was the most aggressive trade union, so aggressive nothing could satisfy its appetite.

One said the CFMEU was uncomfortable if there wasn’t a fight on, he said.

“Australian politics, especially at a state level, is notoriously robust; strong criticism is common,” Mr Watson said.

“Even by those standards the CFMEU went too far.”

Mr Watson blamed ousted CFMEU state secretary Mr Ravbar, who took advantage of a right to freedom of political communication.

“That does not entitle him or anyone to engage in persistent, threatening abuse,” he wrote.

“If the CFMEU was sliding into violence, the slide was starting from the top.”

The investigation found one minister’s office received so many abusive telephone calls that staff were told not to take calls from the CFMEU.

The unnamed minister, Mr Watson said, suffered relentless abuse by Mr Ravbar, while another received upgraded security on the advice of Queensland Police Service.

In 2015 public servants attended the CFMEU offices at Bowen Hills for stakeholder consultation about new industrial legislation.

Mr Watson said they were verbally attacked and told the CFMEU should be making the law, not the Parliament.

A large man stood, towering above the consultative team and shouted for about five minutes, Mr Watson recalled.

“The theme was consistent – I am your boss now. He told them: You’ll take your directions from me and added you’re now working for us.”

Mr Watson said Mr Ravbar denigrated politicians because they would not give in to him, and used Trump-like personal attacks such as labelling Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gutless, willingly ignorant and politically moronic.

Mr Ravbar described successive premiers as increasingly remote and intolerant of criticism and as being a joke of a leader.

Mr Ravbar was given multiple invitations to attend an interview or to respond in writing to allegations put to them by Mr Watson, but declined to do so.

Originally published as CFMEU Qld report: Ministers gobsmacked at slide into violence