See ya, Setka! Why union chief’s departure is good news for women

I remember imploring a former CFMEU official to ditch John Setka.

How did it look, I asked, to back a man who had pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to harass his wife? How did it look to back a man who had publicly said that the work of Rosie Batty, the mother of a murdered child and former Australian of the Year, had led to men having fewer rights?

In his time leading the CFMEU’s Victorian branch, John Setka was critical of former Australian of the Year Rosie Batty.Credit: Michael Quelch, Alex Ellinghausen

How did it look? Never mind how it looked. What did it say about the union movement? What did it say to women in this country? Powerful men hold on to power, no matter how they treat women.

Turns out the union movement itself was divided. A handful were deep-seated enablers of Setka, who backed him and his capos whatever. There were also high-profile women and men who wanted him and his ways gone from the movement forever, and low-profile ones who are right now too frightened to speak out.

Tomcats leave a stink long after they are gone. Some people, like ACTU leaders Sally McManus and Michele O’Neil, felt strong enough to speak out publicly and call for Setka to step down. Others worked tirelessly, quietly, to move on the man they considered toxic to the modern workplace.

Now, fingers crossed, he has finally gone.

Setka, who ran the Victorian branch of the CFMEU with an iron bar, resigned on Friday, claiming he’d been run out of power by the media. Now his branch has been placed into administration, with cleanskin national secretary Zach Smith saying that Nine’s revelations are “credible allegations of wrongdoing” and require an independent investigation.

The truth about the manner of Setka’s passing from power is that he quit amid shocking allegations, including that senior bikie figures and criminals are being parachuted into lucrative union roles on government-funded projects. No one hates scrutiny more than Setka.

When Setka made his comments about Rosie Batty, I lost my mind. It was June 2019 when news of Setka’s remarks leaked from a meeting of the CFMEU. He had been critical of Batty, whose son was murdered in public by his own father in 2014.

He claimed Batty’s advocacy had led to men having fewer rights. Setka said at the time that his comments about Batty didn’t amount to an attack on her and those claiming otherwise had taken him out of context or were being mischievous.

He also said he had great respect for the anti-violence campaigner. Batty, now visiting her elderly parents in the UK, tells me Setka even wrote to her at the time. She’s a kinder and more polite woman than me. I might have told him where to stick it. Batty is optimistic that Setka’s departure will show that men who bully, harass and otherwise mistreat women eventually get the justice they deserve.

In that same year, he was told by Melbourne magistrate Belinda Wallington that he needed to take responsibility for his actions and showed little contrition after using a carriage service to harass his now estranged wife, Emma Walters.

That included a stream of 25 calls and 45 text messages, calling her a “treacherous Aussie f---en c---” and a “f---en dog”, and a “weak f---en piece of shit”. That, I thought, would have been reason enough to recognise he was not fit to lead.

And even this weekend, I was told by people I spoke to that I didn’t understand what an astonishing leader he was, that he stood up for working people, that the CFMEU would be a lesser union without him. Look at his strong record of getting pay rises for members. Look at the way he shrugged off the Coalition.

Mind you, I too have been sucked in by Setka, once for good reason. Back in 2015, when the Coalition was in peak union-bashing mode, Setka left his home to go to the local markets on a December Sunday morning at 8am with his two small kids in the back of his car. Police pulled him over and arrested him, charged him with blackmail. His kids were sobbing in the car. I wrote a column decrying such poor judgment by law enforcement. Two years later, the charges were dropped.

I’m optimistic the construction union can recover, and hopeful this will be a good move for women in construction. Natalie Galea, a long-time construction industry worker, judo Olympian and now senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne, is not so confident. She says Setka’s resignation is unlikely to result in big changes in the industry.

Whatever goes on in construction with men and male entitlement is baked into how the industry works, what behaviours are valued and revered in what is an essential sector for our economy, says Galea. I guess that’s one of the reasons Setka and his mates have survived so long.

Construction is also an industry with a high prevalence of sexual harassment and discrimination towards women. Research she and her team conducted in 2018 revealed a culture of denial and indifference to gender equality among construction leaders. And that was just before Setka’s comments about Batty and his treatment of his wife became public.

The removal of Setka won’t fix construction immediately, and it won’t even fix the CFMEU, but we all need it to change. The ACTU’s McManus has called on the union to rebuild its own house, minus the criminal elements. And that would be the very bare minimum required for a sector which plays such a significant part in the foundations of our economy.

Jenna Price is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and a regular columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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