‘No one is bigger than the union’: CFMEU chief swings axe in cleanout

A powerful union boss who held huge sway over Victoria’s crane industry has quit amid the biggest clean-up of the CFMEU since it was plunged into administration, with up to a dozen other key officials earmarked for removal from what was, until recently, the strongest union branch in Australia.

The resignation of veteran CFMEU powerbroker Steve Long as he faced contested allegations of wrongdoing came as police swooped on another ex-union chief, disgraced branch secretary John Setka, and charged him with menacing and harassing behaviour.

Former CFMEU boss John Setka with Stephen Long at Port Melbourne Football Club in 2021.Credit: Facebook

Setka is accused of sending threatening messages to CFMEU administrator Mark Irving, KC, who has allegedly drawn Setka’s ire over several months as he has moved to sap the influence of the former union boss and his key supporters – including gangland figure Mick Gatto and allegedly corrupt ex-union top official John Perkovic.

Perkovic was sacked by Irving late last month after this masthead uncovered evidence indicating he had been allegedly bribed by building firms.

The resignation of Long on Tuesday evening made him the second union boss, after Perkovic, to be suddenly forced out of the union, despite recent promotion into a CFMEU leadership and reform role by Irving’s most senior Victorian lieutenant, Zach Smith.

On Wednesday morning, Smith moved to shift focus from the disastrous July promotions of Long and Perkovic by moving to dramatically clean out the union, 16 months after this masthead’s Building Bad series saw it plunged into administration.

The sweeping cleanout has partly been prompted by ongoing investigations by this masthead and 60 Minutes, leading to  Perkovic’s exposure for his involvement in suspected corrupt dealings, Long’s abrupt departure and the recent declaration by Irving that long-time union fixer Gatto was industry persona-non-grata.

Smith’s Wednesday announcement signals a far more wide-reaching reform agenda – one which Irving has already rolled out in NSW and Queensland – with a host of controversial Victorian senior officials set to be removed.

In his morning address, Smith warned dozens of union staff that still-serving unionists hostile to the administration’s planned overhaul in Victoria would either be sacked or made redundant. Corruption investigations into several officials are also continuing.

According to union insiders, Smith demanded still-serving CFMEU organisers and delegates “understand the administration is NOT the enemy”.

CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith.Credit: Justin McManus

“The branch must turn a corner. I am going to make some hard decisions – some of them you will like, some of them you won’t … I intend to move people on,” the insiders said Smith told the members.

“And I will no longer tolerate people who want to keep alive a toxic internal culture – a culture of blame, a culture of dysfunction.

“I need a branch of people who are committed to the future and not loyal to the past … no one is bigger than the union.”

Smith and Irving’s intent, union insiders said, was to wrestle complete control of the CFMEU from toxic exiled forces, including Setka and Perkovic – who control the so-called Croatian union faction – and a host of gangland identities now being pursued by Victoria Police’s Taskforce Hawk.

While Smith has refused to discuss who is earmarked for removal, likely targets include senior organisers Joel Shackleton and Gerry McCrudden, who are both facing court action after the Building Bad series obtained video of the pair allegedly threatening a firm on a Labor government rail project.

A powerful union official has also been grilled over whether he received improper benefits from a building company in allegations that are similar, albeit on a lesser scale, to those facing Perkovic, who is accused of receiving improper benefits worth up to $3 million.

There are also credible allegations a Big Build organiser received multiple “brown paper bags” from workers and subcontractors in return for pushing them onto Labor government projects.

Union sources also said it was hoped several honest officials would play a key role in rebuilding the union, including a small group of respected Victorian organisers.

Previous delays in reforming the CFMEU’s Victorian branch have raised serious questions about the efficacy of the Albanese government-sponsored administration reform process.

And while policing agencies were initially denied critical resources to investigate the fallout from the Building Bad series, detectives from the AFP and Victoria Police have recently made a series of important breakthroughs, including charging organised crime linked figures over building industry firebombings and extortion plots and raiding gangland figures over suspected financial crimes.

The federal police have also launched a major probe into Perkovic over his alleged bribery.

Long’s resignation on Tuesday evening came after this masthead uncovered allegations he had misused his union power to pressure building companies to donate money to the Port Melbourne Football Club and had also been accused of demanding kickbacks from crane firms.

Sponsors of the storied VFL club include a crane company implicated in a major alleged tax fraud and a second firm linked to a bikie gang.

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