I’ll be face of CFMEU’s High Court fight, ousted Qld leader tells rally

Thousands of CFMEU members and their supporters have rallied in Brisbane against the government-imposed administration of its construction wing, decrying the move as a precedent-setting attack on the union movement.

Former Queensland secretary Michael Ravbar, swept from his role alongside 270 officials across the country, told the crowd he would be the applicant for a High Court challenge to the laws under a campaign dubbed “Your union, your choice”.

“This is going to be the biggest challenge and the biggest fight that we’ve ever had, but we’re all up for it. You’ve got to get control of your union back, you will never allow a government takeover again,” he said.

Police estimate up to 4000 took part in the Brisbane protest, as part of peaceful rallies across the country of more than 63,000 CFMEU members and supporters.Credit: Jono Searle/AAP

Union leaders and Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather also addressed the crowd gathered in Queens Gardens as part of nationwide demonstrations numbering in the tens of thousands.

While Queensland Premier Steven Miles backed the protesters’ right to do so “peacefully”, he defended the moves by his state Labor government and its federal counterpart in passing laws to place the construction arm of the CFMEU under external control – bypassing Fair Work Commission court action seeking to do the same.

The government actions were sparked by a series of reports by The Australia Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes revealing organised crime links and corruption allegations against union figures in Victoria and NSW.

Large rallies in capital cities came despite the union’s appointed administrator deleting some of the CFMEU’s social media posts promoting them, and warnings that workers downing tools to take part could be docked pay for unprotected industrial action.

Electrical Trades Union Queensland branch secretary Peter Ong told the crowd improved safety conditions over the past two decades were the result of union efforts, and called the government actions an “attack on the trade union movement”.

“Ninety-eight per cent of [workers] are the good ones,” he said. “The criminals in the building and construction industry are the builders and developers.”

Chandler-Mather said Labor had used allegations of corruption in the union ranks to pass “the most draconian anti-worker, anti-union laws this country has ever seen” to “set a dangerous precedent”.

“What they have done is handed every future Labor or Liberal government a blueprint on how to seize control of any trade union or civil society association they don’t like and crush it,” he said.

Asked about the protests at a media conference in Cairns, Miles said he “absolutely respect[ed] the right of any Queenslander to peacefully protest” but “there is no place for violence and for intimidation, and that’s what for too long we’ve seen on our construction sites”.

Queensland Major Contractors Association chief executive Andrew Chapman told 4BC on Tuesday morning it would be disappointing to see protests against the administration, which was “not an attack on workers”. “We need to move forward,” he said.

Civil liberties groups and a global peak union group have warned the government moves could breach Australia’s International Labour Organisation obligations.