How the CFMEU turned a workplace safety regulator into a ‘captured pawn’

Queensland’s CFMEU sought to control the workplace health and safety regulator and then launched a campaign against its boss after she attempted to walk back the union’s access, the state inquiry into the union and construction sector heard.

Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King was brought to tears recounting her efforts to take a rival union’s safety concerns to police – with no response – after a major contractor revealed concerns of employees being “stalked”.

The powerful inquiry headed by Stuart Wood was launched by the Queensland government following reporting by this masthead and 60 Minutes into criminality, corruption and misconduct in the CFMEU and construction industry nationwide.

King has revealed new details about the CFMEU’s bid to control workplace laws in Queensland.Credit: News Corp Australia

Under questioning from counsel assisting Mark Costello, King told the inquiry on Tuesday that since-ousted CFMEU leader Michael Ravbar had attempted to control workplace regulatory figures.

She said Ravbar had instructed other officials to disrupt union movement meetings and the Workplace Health and Safety Board, which was made “completely dysfunctional” through the presence of former CFMEU state president Royce Kupsch.

King told the inquiry she also believed the CFMEU set out to control the deputy director-general of the state’s short-lived workplace health and safety regulator, Kym Bancroft, who began the role in 2022 and had wanted to develop a good relationship with the union.

Bancroft attended meetings at the CFMEU office multiple times a week, which was “pretty unheard of”, King said.

“She became almost a captured pawn,” she said of Bancroft. But the regulator’s efforts to pull back were met with a campaign of resistance and pressure from the union, which ultimately led to Bancroft’s resignation in early 2023.

King said she had had only one major interaction with former CFMEU leader Jade Ingham, early last year, as a bill before Queensland parliament sought to close loopholes allowing officials without right of entry permits to access workplaces.

It was International Women’s Day and King had a series of missed calls from an unknown number and ultimately a message revealing the caller to be Ingham, seeking an urgent meeting about the bill.

Former CFMEU national president, and assistant Queensland state secretary, Jade Ingham with Cross River Rail workers in April last year.Credit: Dan Peled

The pair met later that day after Ingham had visited United Workers Union boss Gary Bullock to discuss “party matters”. King said Ingham demanded she help him push for the parliamentary bill’s passage to be delayed.

Ingham said this would give him “kudos” with organisers to help him run against Ravbar for the role of secretary in upcoming union elections. He said he would then bring the CFMEU back in as a QCU affiliate and into Labor’s Left faction.

If she refused, Ingham said Ravbar would “go nuclear” with a campaign against the government and probably the broader union movement. King said her rejection of the proposal shocked Ingham.

The bill eventually passed, and King said she believed this triggered a period of escalated industrial action from the CFMEU on the Cross River Rail and Centenary Bridge upgrade projects.

King was also asked about incidents of hostility between the CFMEU and Australian Workers Union, revealing that Centenary Bridge upgrade contractor BMD approached her with allegations of intimidation.

In the “unusual” meeting, BMD raised concerns that the CFMEU was campaigning against the firm because of its refusal to sign an agreement with the union in Victoria.

King was shown security footage from the construction site, with allegations of people being “stalked” at night and three tracking devices being placed on company vehicles.

AWU Queensland secretary Stacey Schinnerl.Credit: Facebook

She was also told of a private investigator who advised the contractor the CFMEU had brought “Setka’s people” – figures affiliated with disgraced former Victorian secretary John Setka – from “down south”.

Around this time, the contractor had informed AWU state secretary Stacey Schinnerl it could not guarantee her safety on the site, and suggested it had no luck raising its concerns with police.

Schinnerl had shared fears for herself and her family with King, and the pair eventually met with Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski and Deputy Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon.

“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something actually happened [to Schinnerl],” King said, telling the inquiry she gave police at the meeting USBs with the BMD footage.

Despite being told the matter would be investigated, King said there was no update from police and she eventually “formed a view that that wasn’t going to resolve the situation”.

More recently, King said she told Scanlon about CFMEU staff’s concerns about Anthony Perrett – a relative of Ingham – “and some of the activities he was up to” that were separate to his murder charges.

But she told the inquiry she would be uncomfortable going into more detail given the CFMEU staff’s concerns for their safety. Counsel assisting the inquiry noted such evidence may be given in a private session under “active consideration”.

The inquiry will resume on Wednesday, with King potentially facing cross-examination by counsel for the CFMEU administration, Ravbar, and Ingham, before Schinnerl is slated to appear.

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