How CFMEU administrator could permanently expel union boss John Setka

The CFMEU administrator is considering moves to permanently expel disgraced former Victorian secretary John Setka from the union after launching similar internal action to keep ousted Queensland bosses Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham from the organisation.

Mark Irving KC, who was brought in to run the scandal-plagued union after it was placed into administration, outlined efforts to reshape the organisation during Queensland’s powerful Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU and wider construction industry misconduct on Thursday.

He said actions taken by Ravbar and Ingham to build a “fiefdom”, which effectively left members without voting rights and saw their fees directed to a separate state-registered entity, breached both union rules and the law – and may be reported to external authorities.

CFMEU administrator Mark Irving.Credit: News Corp Australia

Irving told the inquiry that while the more than 300 union officials ousted by the administration nationwide would need to convince the Fair Work Commission they were fit and proper to stand in any future union election, their membership was another matter.

He said he had powers under union rules, and had exercised them, to establish disciplinary processes that could lead to expulsion of members from the organisation.

This process features a charge laid by the union’s head of legal and integrity – potentially at Irving’s direction – material being given to the member involved, and an opportunity to respond in writing, before the case went to an independent decision maker.

Irving told the inquiry he had already issued such directions regarding Ravbar and Ingham, but had not yet done so for Setka. In the case of the Victorian former leader, Irving said there was a “series of matters I’m contemplating about these steps in the very near future”.

He said he was also considering such steps in relation to fellow Victorians Joe Miles, Elias Spernovasilis and Derek Christopher, as well as Darren and Michael Greenfield in NSW.

Irving said he disagreed in part with previous evidence from his investigator Geoffrey Watson SC that the Queensland figures were seeking to import Victorian methods of pushing the rival Australian Workers Union off civil construction sites and an almost-power sharing with organised crime.

“Michael Ravbar wasn’t sharing power with anyone. Michael Ravbar was concentrating power in his hands with Jade Ingham,” Irving said.

The CFMEU’s former Queensland secretary, Michael Ravbar.Credit: Matt Dennien

“It [the Queensland branch] didn’t need Mr Setka or its people or its model. The fact that cancer has certain outcomes which are common across various cancers, doesn’t mean the cancer is the same in each place. It doesn’t mean the treatment for the cancer should be the same in each place.

“And so it is that when I came to appoint Watson to investigate – the cancer in Queensland was violence, it wasn’t organised crime.”

Irving also revealed the difficulty of prising the “shadow control” of the branch away from ousted leaders Ravbar and Ingham.

Irving said this control was exerted until June or July this year, until he saw an opportunity to take action following Watson’s report into violence in the branch, and its leaders’ unsuccessful High Court challenge of the administration.

After this, Irving could assess who the “good soldiers of bad generals” were who were prepared to “repent”, work lawfully, and step away from the “coercive control” of Ravbar and Ingham – one of whom was Dylan Howard, who had been named in Watson’s report.

The lengths of this control was evidenced by a relative of Ingham – Anthony Perrett, who was subsequently charged with murder – driving union officials to their interviews with Watson.

When these figures were transported to the interviews, Perrett provided the figures with recording devices, which sent a clear message – “effectively, don’t squeal”, Irving said.

Irving told the inquiry that after hearing Perrett was used as a driver, he contacted police as he believed this and other whistleblower information had revealed “criminal offences”.

Irving said he also phoned then-inquiry secretary Bob Gee and told him to seek that information from police as such behaviour could have affected the operation of the inquiry.

The inquiry heard details of some of the Queensland union’s financial arrangements, as well as a “service agreement” between its two related entities: the Queensland and Northern Territory branch of the federally registered union, and a Queensland-registered union.

This agreement meant the $40 million to $50 million in fees from the state’s 15,000 to 20,000 members were paid to the state-registered body instead of the federal one, stripping members of internal voting rights for elections, which had been uncontested for 15 years, Irving said.

Irving said Ravbar and Ingham entered the agreement through their positions on both entities – without advising the national union governance body and without legal advice – in the days after the unopposed 2020 election of the pair and their “team”.

A range of investment properties then appeared to be acquired by the state-registered union.

Irving noted that he sought legal advice to correct the arrangement, adding that while he was giving evidence based on his recollection, there was a “vast amount of documentary evidence which will set this all out”.

“I have formed a view about these transactions; I have formed a view about the legality of those transactions, and that view will inform what actions I take against Mr Ravbar and Mr Ingham in terms of expulsion from membership, and in terms of any actions that need to be taken to report things to other authorities.”

While Watson had told the inquiry he believed the situation in Queensland and NSW was “under control”, Irving said the fledgling nature of this meant his oversight was still needed – though the state branch was ready and willing to move forward with regulators, employers and governments.

Counsel for Ravbar and Ingham have indicated they will seek to cross-examine both Irving and Watson during future hearings, which Commissioner Stuart Wood suggested on Wednesday were likely to run full-time between early February and Easter.

The next three-day hearing block is set to begin on December 2, with a witness list not yet prepared.

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