John Setka under fire over ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’ poster of Stephen McBurney

CFMEU boss John Setka has warned he will pursue head of umpiring Stephen McBurney “until the end of the earth”, while the union shared a mugshot of McBurney on a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster.

John Setka has vowed to halt construction projects linked to the AFL. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Opposition Leader John Pesutto has taken another swipe at the Allan government for failing to condemn union heavyweight John Setka’s savage attack on the AFL.

Premier Jacinta Allan has refused to criticise the powerful CFMEU boss – who vowed to halt construction projects linked to the AFL that would make those jobs a “f---ing misery” for the league – leading to accusations her government is “too scared” to stand up to a major ALP donor.

It comes as the state’s deputy premier appeared to back Mr Setka despite furore over the comments which have been slammed as thuggish.

The powerful CFMEU boss has threatened to halt all construction projects linked to the AFL unless the league sacks its umpiring boss, Stephen McBurney, who clashed with the union in a previous role as head of the industry watchdog.

Mr Setka warned he would pursue Mr McBurney, formerly the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner, “until the end of the earth”.

The threat, accompanied by a post of a CFMEU mugshot of Mr McBurney on a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster that had the first word crossed out and replaced with “Not wanted”, was described by the opposition as “violent”.

The CFMEU shared the ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’ poster of Stephen McBurney on social media.

On Thursday, Mr Pesutto questioned why Premier Jacinta Allan was not calling out Mr Setka, labelling her refusal to condemn the comments “ignorant” and “dangerous”.

“This is a prominent Victorian in Mr Setka ... and yet our Premier is conspicuous by her inaction and conspicuous by her silence,” he said.

“Does Premier Jacinta Allan think that John Setka’s comments are a good example for other men?”

Ms Allan released a statement in response to a series of questions from the Herald Sun on Wednesday.

“Everyone has the right to a safe and respectful workplace,” Ms Allan said.

On Thursday, her deputy Ben Carroll defended the decision not to call out Mr Setka’s language.

“Unions are always representing their members’ interests,” he said.

Asked whether he believed Mr Setka’s language was acceptable, Mr Carroll said he wasn’t fully across what was said but defended the role of unions.

“Unions will always advocate on behalf of their members,” he added.

Mr Pesutto said Victoria needed to be free from what he called “rogue union leaders”.

“We want good unions and need good unions in this country and this state,” he said.

“We don’t need rogue unions, we don’t need rogue union leaders who flout the law and intimidate other people, particularly when those unions are in charge, effectively it seems, of major projects that are blowing out by tens of billions of dollars.”

Mr Setka’s threat has raised concerns about men’s violence. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Respect Victoria board director Steven Roberts said Mr Setka’s threat highlighted a need for a national conversation about how men should engage respectfully with other men.

“Men’s violence against other men, verbally and physically, is a huge problem,” he said.

“But it’s also endorsed. There is a longstanding idea baked into our culture that men should be able to take a joke, and to give and receive a degree of abuse. This is a socially sanctioned form of dominance.”

Mr Setka doubled down on Wednesday, calling the Liberals “sooky babies”.

It is the second time he has launched a vulgar attack on Mr McBurney, who was the head of the ABCC when it pursued legal action against the union that cost it millions of dollars in fines.

In 2018, former prime minister Scott Morrison considered deregistering the union over a social media post created by Mr Setka that featured a photo of his children holding a sign saying “Go get f---ed”.

Mr Setka later took down the post and apologised for including his children in the post.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto criticised the Allan government’s failure to call out Mr Setka’s “intimidating” behaviour. “By turning a blind eye, Premier Jacinta Allan is allowing this thuggish behaviour to continue and effectively condoning it,” he said.

Senior opposition MP Michael O’Brien said the government was “too scared” to call out the CFMEU’s “industrial thuggishness and standover tactics” because it was “beholden” to the union.

Mr McBurney is the former head of the industry watchdog Australian Building and Construction Commission. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Ms Allan last month became the first state premier to dedicate a parliamentary role focused on changing men’s behaviour in the community.

But when asked if she would condemn Mr Setka’s comments, Ms Allan only said in a statement: “Everyone has the right to a safe and respectful workplace.”

Senior government minister Mary-Anne Thomas said the claims from the CFMEU appeared to be “overreach” but it was a matter between the union and the AFL.

Asked if the conduct was appropriate, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded: “I removed John Setka from the Labor Party many years ago as one of my first acts as leader.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Mr Setka should give up on his campaign against the AFL saying it lacked “common sense”.

Asked if it was appropriate for unions to get involved in dictating the appointment of CEOs and other high level officials, Mr Albanese said: “no”.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said laws about unlawful industrial action had not changed in Australia and “at the moment there’s some things being said that we do not support”.

“They are very specific and have been in Australia for a long time now about the limitations of industrial action being assigned to specific bargaining periods, not because you don’t like someone who’s running umpires,” Mr Burke said.

“The second thing I’d say is as a rule of thumb if you want to win over the Australian people, don’t start attacking the AFL.”

But Sports Minister Anika Wells remained tightlipped about the threats to the AFL, with a staff member wrapping up a press conference when a journalist tried to ask about the incident.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said Mr Albanese needed to stand up to John Setka and condemn bullying in the workplace.

“We’ve now got a union leader and a very powerful union leader within the labour movement, who’s out there trying to intimidate the AFL,” Mr Dutton said.

“The AFL shouldn’t be subject to these sorts of scandalous threats, and good on them for standing up and pushing back against John Setka and the other militant unions, including the Electrical Trades Union, who have joined this outrageous call.”

Mr Setka came under intense fire in 2019 after he was quoted as saying that the advocacy of prominent domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty, whose son Luke was murdered by his father, had led to men having few rights.

In 2018, the Melbourne Magistrates Court heard Mr Setka tried calling his wife, Emma Walters, 25 times and sent her 45 messages containing “insults and offensive language” on one night.