Former CFMEU assistant secretary reveals why he quit the union

Former CFMEU assistant secretary Shaun Reardon says he had no choice but to quit the union in 2019 due to a commitment to end violence against women.

John Setka and Shaun Reardon when they both represented the CFMEU

Former CFMEU assistant secretary Shaun Reardon has broken a three-year silence about quitting the union following domestic violence charges against John Setka.

Mr Reardon said he had no choice but to quit due to a commitment to “campaigning to end all forms of violence against women & children”.

He said the response within the union to his bombshell resignation at the time had been mixed amid a bitter fallout surrounding Mr Setka’s guilty plea to charges of harassing his wife.

Mr Setka was ordered to a 12-month good behaviour bond and to undergo a men’s behaviour program by the Magistrate’s Court in 2019.

On social networking site LinkedIn, Mr Reardon says his decision to speak out was “not a comfortable post, but an important one”.

Shaun Reardon (centre) among thousands of protesters at the Change the Rules rally in Melbourne, 2019. Picture: Daniel Pockett

“It was to be the hardest work-life decision I’d ever made & yet also the easiest: To leave the job I loved in order to follow the principles & policies of the broader union movement in campaigning to end all forms of violence against women & children,” he said.

The post was applauded by Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll who described him as a “man of integrity”.

Mr Reardon writes in the post that on average a woman every week is murdered in Australia by the hands of a current or former partner and that one in three women experience physical violence from the age of 15.

“This crisis is caused by the behaviour of men & fuelled by the silence of men,” he writes.

“In the end, it can only ever be fixed by the behaviour of men, & silence can never be an option.”

Mr Reardon, who is now a consultant on the Pathways to Employment program that lines up jobs for prisoners once they’re released, declined to comment further when contacted.

In his LinkedIn post, he writes that he represented the union for 30 years and was proud of its policies.

John Setka and his deputy Shaun Reardon arrive at the Melbourne magistrates court, 2018. Picture: Aaron Francis

But he says “I have no regrets” about the decision that caused waves within the construction division of the union.

At the time, Mr Setka was refusing to quit as secretary of the militant union, despite now-prime minister Anthony Albanese calling for him to be booted from the party for bringing it into disrepute.

Mr Setka eventually quit the ALP, hitting out at Mr Albanese in the process, but no the union.

Mr Reardon said the reaction to his resignation within the construction division of the union was “varied”.

“There were a few tears, anger, disappointment, knives in the back & the expected opportunism by enablers,” he writes.

“I have no regrets about the decision I made that day but will forever miss playing my role in what was then, the CFMMEU.

“I had over 30,000 of the best bosses anyone could ever ask for.”