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Building Bad
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Building Bad

A months-long investigation into the CFMEU has uncovered rife infiltration by bikies and organised criminals, intimidation and allegations of corruption.

35 stories
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Building bad: How bikies, underworld have become a construction industry ‘cancer’

A months-long investigation featuring secret surveillance reveals how bikies, criminals and underworld figures have infiltrated the building industry, including on large publicly funded projects.

  • by Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Ben Schneiders
Harry Korras is recorded offering to arrange CFMEU kickbacks.
Exclusive

‘Everyone eats’: Secret audio lays bare CFMEU kickback plan

A fixer has been caught on tape offering to set up kickbacks to union officials to win work for a company as police evidence mounts against John Setka’s anointed successor over suspected corruption.

  • by Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman, Ben Schneiders and Amelia Ballinger
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on Monday.
Exclusive

Warning on CFMEU intimidation sent to Allan, Albanese in 2022

A construction company battling CFMEU standover tactics wrote to top Labor politicians detailing their trouble and offering proof.

  • by Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Ben Schneiders
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Marty Albert
Exclusive

Bikie enforcer kept senior CFMEU role despite assault charges

The Bandidos sergeant-at-arms sat on the governing board of the John Setka-led union branch, working as an organiser on major Victorian government projects.

  • by David Marin-Guzman and Nick McKenzie
CFMEU NSW secretary Darren Greenfield, who is facing bribery charges, supported Setka remaining at the CFMEU.
Exclusive

CFMEU boss allegedly bragged of corrupt contract connections at $94b super fund

Police allege the high-ranking official boasted to corrupt building firms that he could secure them lucrative jobs on construction projects financed by superannuation giant Cbus.

  • by Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Ben Schneiders
Former ACTU Secretary Bill Kelty.
Opinion

Building union officials are the toughest people I know, but unity is a two-way street

It is regretful that the ACTU has had to take steps to suspend the CFMEU, but it had no choice if it wanted to protect the interests of working people.

  • by Bill Kelty
Premier Jacinta Allan has come under pressure over her government’s response to the CFMEU scandal.

Premier defends Victoria’s CFMEU inquiry and says investigator will have access to senior MPs

Jacinta Allan has vowed the government-appointed investigator will be able to speak to ministers – including herself – about claims against the CFMEU. 

  • by Broede Carmody
Kayne Pettifer and Faruk Orman.

The footballer, the underworld and the union deal that exposes construction’s dark secrets

When Faruk Orman aligned with ex-AFL goalsneak Kayne Pettifer to secure CFMEU support for a labour-hire firm, it was a case study in underworld figures monetising union backing.

  • by Nick McKenzie and David Marin-Guzman
Premier Jacinta Allan has been under pressure over her response to the CFMEU.

State government review of troubled construction sector to report back within six weeks

Victoria’s independent review into the construction sector will provide an interim report by late August and a final report by the end of November.

  • by Broede Carmody
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Luba Grigorovitch, Luke Hilakari, John Setka, Troy Gray and Christy Cain.
Analysis

The backers who allowed John Setka’s rise to ultimate power

Five years ago, the head of Australia’s union movement demanded Setka’s resignation. What happened next allowed him to not only survive, but thrive.

  • by Ben Schneiders
Former CFMEU secretary John Setka at the Labor national conference in Adelaide in 2018.

God forgives, the CFMEU doesn’t: The warning for Labor after Setka

The union speaks to Labor’s working-class voters more than any other. Now the party fears the CFMEU has a long memory.

  • by Kieran Rooney and Rachel Eddie
CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka.
Editorial

Chance for a CFMEU clean-out – but the devil will be in the detail

The cronies, the corrupt, the violent and all underworld figures need to be banished from the construction union and a new generation of decent people must take their place.

  • The Age's View
The CFMEU has faced allegations that organised crime figures had infiltrated the union.
Exclusive

More than 20 CFMEU officials stood down after organised crime allegations

Union officials and delegates have been called into meetings this week and stood down after damning revelations about the CFMEU and links to organised crime.

  • by Kieran Rooney, Rachel Eddie, Sumeyya Ilanbey and Angus Thompson
Australians are paying the price for CFMEU tactics that add billions to the nation’s building costs and weaken productivity.
Exclusive

Australians pay the price for CFMEU tactics, figures show

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has turned the dispute over the CFMEU into a political test over the cost of living, claiming the union has added 30 per cent to the cost of major projects.

  • by David Crowe and Angus Thompson
Labor insiders sent John Setka messages of support through 2019.
Exclusive

Setka’s secret sisterhood: Labor women in covert support of CFMEU boss revealed

Leaked text messages reveal a network of Labor-linked women rallied around the fallen union leader over criminal harassment charges and his criticism of Rosie Batty’s domestic violence advocacy work.

  • by Nick McKenzie, Ben Schneiders and David Marin-Guzman
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The CFMEU’s NSW branch joined Queensland in opposing government intervention in the scandal.
Exclusive

Labor-linked judge in government sights to take over CFMEU

Three sources familiar with conversations inside the government and union movement said NSW Supreme Court Justice Stephen Rothman was among candidates being discussed as a potential administrator.

  • by Paul Sakkal, Angus Thompson and Ben Schneiders
Black hoodies, branded with the CFMEU Qld/NT logo, available from the online union shop.
Updated

Black hoodies, cameras and ‘slurs’ at centre of Queensland CFMEU case

A judge has imposed new restrictions on CFMEU representatives and measures to allow safe passage for other workers on the $6.3 billion Cross River Rail project in Brisbane.

  • by Sean Parnell
Workers at the West Gate Tunnel project

CFMEU faces three federal courts in one day over intimidation allegations

A judge has criticised the belligerent and hostile behaviour of the union after it held up construction on a project for 6½ hours in the middle of the night.

  • by David Estcourt and Sean Parnell
Ned Kocic (left) and Darren Greenfield.
Exclusive

On police radar and still on an inside track to major projects thanks to CFMEU

A company championed by the union has become one of NSW’s biggest labour-hire firms supplying large publicly funded projects.

  • by David Marin-Guzman, Nick McKenzie, Eryk Bagshaw and Kate McClymont
Anthony Albanese has defended his government’s response to allegations of criminal activity and standover tactics in the CFMEU.
Analysis

This is not the time to flinch on union corruption

Will Labor look after households or protect its friends in the union movement? One way to tell will be whether it forces tainted officials out the door.

  • by David Crowe
CFMEU.
Updated

Union to go to war over bid to stamp out CFMEU corruption

Union officials have vowed to fight “to the ends of the earth” against federal government moves to appoint an administrator to oversee the scandal-plagued CFMEU.

  • by David Crowe, Angus Thompson and Paul Sakkal
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CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar organised protests against senior Labor MPs in Queensland over the industrial manslaughter laws.

Queensland union boss lashes out at Labor governments over CFMEU probe

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had “panicked and soiled himself over some unproven allegations”, according to Queensland CFMEU boss Michael Ravbar.

  • by Tony Moore
NSW Premier Chris Minns has moved to suspend the CFMEU from the Labor Party.
Updated

NSW premier moves to suspend CFMEU from Labor Party, stop all political donations

The NSW government will attempt to oust CFMEU state secretary Darren Greenfield through the courts or take the matter to parliament.

  • by Max Maddison and Jessica McSweeney

Corruption, crooks and kickback offers: What we know about the CFMEU scandal so far

The fallout from our investigation into the powerful construction union began on Friday, when long-time union boss John Setka resigned, before the first story had even been published.

  • by David Estcourt
CFMEU NSW
Exclusive

The CFMEU boss, a wad of cash and a hidden camera: New pictures reveal covert police operation

A police camera hidden in the ceiling of the CFMEU’s Sydney office allegedly captured NSW construction union boss Darren Greenfield being passed a $5000 bundle of cash.

  • by Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Ben Schneiders
CFMEU flags.
Exclusive

Government to appoint independent administrator for CFMEU

The advice to the government is that deregistering the CFMEU would not work because the union could continue to act against employers.

  • by David Crowe, Ben Schneiders, Angus Thompson and Paul Sakkal
John Setka leads a CFMEU rally last year.
Opinion

I witnessed the rot set in at the CFMEU. Here’s how it happened

When John Setka and his band took control, muscle became everything – no matter where the muscle came from.

  • by John Sutton
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Premier Jacinta Allan addressing the media on Tuesday,

Indigenous justice commission to probe worksite allegations amid CFMEU fallout

Premier Jacinta Allan has also confirmed that the Victorian Labor Party had begun formal processes to eject the CFMEU’s construction division from its ranks.

  • by Broede Carmody and Kieran Rooney
Ben Nash’s coffin at his funeral where his love of construction was clear.
Exclusive

‘I just need it to end’: CFMEU power play turned Ben’s construction dream into a fatal nightmare

The day before his 19th birthday, the young man went to his first day in a new job. He was bullied, humiliated and locked in a shed.

  • by Nick McKenzie, Reid Butler and David Marin-Guzman
CFMEU boss John Setka in June.
Analysis

It’s a union, not a bikie gang: CFMEU needs a serious overhaul, not more of the same

The union’s national body wants policymakers and the public to think it’s taken a strong step. It hasn’t.

  • by Ben Schneiders
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke is weighing up federal interventions including deregistering the CFMEU’s construction division or appointing an external administrator.
Exclusive

Labor executive set to ban donations from Victorian CFMEU

The move is an attempt to cauterise the political damage over revelations of underworld infiltration into the scandal-plagued construction union.

  • by Angus Thompson and Paul Sakkal
Exclusive

‘Leo the dog’: Setka caught on tape delivering threatening message to rival’s home

Video of the former union chief’s night-time visit emerges, plus other officials filmed in abusive tirade on $761 million government project.

  • by Nick McKenzie, Ben Schneiders, David Marin-Guzman and Reid Butler
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke

‘Everything on the table’: Burke weighs deregistration of CFMEU construction division amid revelations

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has threatened deregistration if the union doesn’t clean house.

  • by James Massola and Annika Smethurst
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John Setka
Updated

‘Good’: Albanese welcomes Setka resignation amid calls for CFMEU probe

Amid allegations that senior bikie figures and criminals have been handed lucrative union roles on government-funded projects, the PM said the former union boss’s alleged behaviour should be condemned, isolated and stamped out.

  • by Annika Smethurst, Harriet Alexander and Anthony Segaert
CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka has resigned.
Updated

John Setka resigns immediately as head of CFMEU

The powerful construction union boss resigned on Friday night in the face of a raft of explosive allegations about misconduct involving him and the CFMEU.

  • by Nick McKenzie, Angus Thompson and Kieran Rooney

Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/national/building-bad-20240703-p5jqr4.html