Violent Queensland union was copying Setka’s campaign, inquiry hears

The man brought in to probe violence in the CFMEU’s Queensland branch has told an inquiry that a conscious campaign to push the Australian Workers Union (AWU) off civil construction sites was done to emulate what the CFMEU’s Victorian branch had achieved under disgraced former boss John Setka.

In his second day of evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU and Misconduct in the Construction Industry, investigator Geoffrey Watson said hostilities between the union and the AWU, its main rival on large infrastructure projects, were a matter of economic significance to the entire nation.

Watson, hired by the federally appointed CFMEU administrators to investigate allegations of violence in Queensland after reporting by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes, said the conflict between the two unions was no longer a theory but “exactly what has happened”.

Geoffrey Watson gave evidence as a witness for a second day at the Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU.Credit: News Corp Australia

He elaborated on remarks made in Tuesday’s hearing that troubles had ramped up in line with state investment in big infrastructure projects – “tunnels, railways, things which normally fall within the jurisdiction of the AWU”.

“I think the point has to be made and underlined that this was just emulating [former Victorian CFMEU secretary John] Setka’s effective campaign in Victoria,” Watson said on Wednesday.

“If you’ve only got one union covering all of these areas, they’re given far, far too much power in those negotiations. You can imagine the pressure that’s about to be placed on scarce labour resources here [in Queensland] with the Olympics coming along.”

John Setka, the long-serving secretary of the Victorian branch of the CFMEU.Credit: Chris Hopkins

Watson said the issue was more than a matter of abuse between unions, but was of economic significance to the people of Queensland.

“I’ll go a step further and say the people of Australia,” he continued. “The fact is, there are massive infrastructure projects at the moment, in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland.

“Somebody said to me … that they felt that the Queensland branch may have been driven to do it because they feared Setka and his operatives may move into Queensland. Now, that sounds a little far-fetched to me, but it should be said that’s what Setka did with South Australia.”

Watson said that the building firms represented in the Brisbane CBD were not the same as in others around the country.

“Other big-name builders can see what was happening, and they’ve been burnt in Victoria, and you’ll find a lot of them still heavily represented as major construction companies on projects on the Gold Coast … and have avoided the Brisbane CBD construction market because of it.”

Setka, the CFMEU’s leader in Victoria for 12 years, was arrested in Melbourne last week. He faces charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass and offend the union’s government-appointed administrator, Mark Irving.

Inquiry hears of incidents at Centenary Bridge, Cross River Rail sites

In Wednesday’s hearing, Watson was quizzed about several of the incidents that featured in his 45-page report, released in July, that had taken place on infrastructure projects around Brisbane.

In one, CFMEU members surrounded AWU organisers’ cars at the Centenary Bridge upgrade site in Jindalee, “shouting at the driver and rocking the car”.

CFMEU members surround an AWU organiser’s car at the Centenary Bridge upgrade site.Credit: Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU

At another, at the Cross River Rail Northern Portal site at Normanby, an AWU organiser passed through a picket line to speak to members about an investigation into an accident.

He was surrounded by CFMEU members, who shouted abuse at him for 15 minutes while one of his tyres was deflated.

Watson also spoke about a confrontation near the Cross River Rail site at Woolloongabba, where AWU organisers were met by a CFMEU group, surrounded, and separated, with one having his backpack removed and shoved.

The CFMEU surround two AWU delegates at a Coles shopping centre near the Woolloongabba Cross River Rail site.Credit: Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU

The counsel assisting the inquiry, Mark Costello, asked Watson about an incident where a CFMEU member taunted an AWU organiser with “schoolyard” taunts of “googly eyes”.

“By the way, don’t brush it aside ... because that’s just how this works,” Watson says, noting that CFMEU members would determine who was weak or capitulated and then seek to “incite him to throw the first punch”.

‘Lack of cooperation’ from major builders

After counsel for the inquiry and the administrator reached a deal on Wednesday, a version of Watson’s public report with most names unredacted was tendered as evidence, identifying several union officials whose names had previously been blacked out.

A second, shorter, “private” report prepared by Watson for the administration was also tendered.

Watson told the inquiry that a number of potential witnesses were approached but declined to be interviewed, and that he was disappointed by a lack of cooperation from Cross River Rail contractor CPB and Centenary Bridge contractor BMD.

He described an overwhelming code of silence from the sector, including building firms. In one instance, he had been having “very open” discussions with an industrial relations adviser on Cross River Rail, before they were subject to a “campaign” by the CFMEU.

“I was contacted by a private law firm … acting for CPB who were the contractors and all of a sudden they all clammed up,” Watson told the inquiry.

“I’ve got a lot of that from the major contractors, they just will whinge from the sidelines but they will not assist in finding a solution.”

Watson also noted evidence of “bad employers” in the state, including labour hire firms with links to outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Youth Crew described as ‘hit squad’

Costello, the counsel assisting, asked Watson about an informal grouping known as the Youth Crew.

The investigator told the inquiry he “couldn’t get to the bottom of” why some union members who appeared at incidents of hostility toward the AWU were not at work sites in work clothes.

“Wouldn’t it be good to know who’s the person who sent the message to say ‘be at the Centenary Bridge’,” Watson said.

The group was described to him by people outside the CFMEU as a “hit squad” and in other “wonderful ways”, Watson said.

“If it did any good, I didn’t find out about it – but it was available to attend occasions like this and, in effect, lead trouble making.”

‘Queensland is under control’

Under cross-examination by Chris O’Grady KC, the counsel for the administrator Irving, Watson said the federal administration of the union had “changed things”.

He described the new executive officer, Jared Abbot, as an outsider with a calm and cool manner who had “just given a different feel to the whole place”.

“Queensland is under control … I think that NSW is under control. Victoria’s a problematic case – but it always was, it’s going to be harder there,” he said.

The inquiry will resume on Thursday, with Irving to give evidence.

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