The CFMEU’s crisis is of its own making. Administration may offer way out

John Setka, the former secretary of the Victorian and Tasmanian branch of the CFMEU, was never one to take a backward step – despite his bouts of appalling behaviour. He refused to quit when expelled from the Labor Party in 2019 after remarks he made about anti-violence campaigner Rosie Batty. And when Setka’s wife accused him of assaulting her, he never budged an inch.

As a consequence, when Setka abruptly called it quits in July after questions were sent to his office by The Age regarding alleged CFMEU corruption, standover tactics and links to organised crime, it was a telling sign. For Setka, the jig was finally up.

CFMEU members rally in Melbourne.Credit: Jason South

The months-long Building Bad investigation, featuring secret surveillance, revealed how bikies, criminals and underworld figures infiltrated the building industry via the CFMEU. The reports shocked the nation and set in train national legislation that would enable federal Labor to kneecap the union’s leadership by placing the CFMEU into administration.

That effort came to fruition last Friday, when Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus installed barrister Mark Irving, KC, to run the CFMEU nationally, pushing out almost 300 of the union’s leaders, including its powerful NSW secretary, Darren Greenfield, and Setka protege Derek Christopher.

Labor is finally taking some overdue action. It has surely known for years of the CFMEU’s bullying and intimidatory ways, making it an embarrassment that it took widespread media coverage for politicians to finally confront the powerful union.

The inevitable backlash has begun. Tens of thousands of workers from the CFMEU, backed by a string of other unions, downed tools on Tuesday across the nation to protest against the crackdown.

For all the high-vis, flags and speeches, however, it’s not going to wash with a public that has been shocked by the revelations.

A union leadership trying to manufacture protests against an effort to make them law-abiding and act in the interests of their members is unconscionable and shows how out of step they are with the rest of society.

What is regrettable is that the vast majority of CFMEU workers would have little to nothing to do with the egregious behaviour of a few within its ranks. Those members have a right to be angry, as Nick McKenzie writes today, but not with the government.

As revealed last weekend, they should be angry that a scaffolding firm that secured significant contracts on the redevelopment of the nation’s war memorial, a major hospital, Sydney Metro and a public school has been repeatedly promoted by the CFMEU, despite a catastrophic safety record and alleged links to a bikie boss and other underworld figures.

They should be angry that Setka, only days ago, went on national television to defend his actions, declaring that bikies had been working in the building industry “since Jesus wore shorts” and arguing it was not the CFMEU’s job to ask about these associations.

This is the same union, as revealed by the Building Bad investigation, that had a convicted criminal and bikie figure in Melbourne appointed as a health and safety official, earning an estimated $250,000 on one of Labor’s Big Build projects, while using a car assigned to conduct his union duties to engage in bikie gang activities.

Those in charge at the CFMEU had clearly lost their way. Setka may be the most notorious, but his removal was not enough to trigger a purge of the malicious forces within its membership.

The Age can only hope that the CFMEU under administration gets back to core business: looking after its members, ensuring their safety and fighting for fair wages and conditions.

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