Setka’s secret sisterhood: Labor women in covert support of CFMEU boss revealed

This article is part of a months-long series investigating misconduct in the CFMEU.See all 35 stories.

Labor politicians and insiders sent private messages of support to former CFMEU boss John Setka as he dealt with domestic violence-related offences and fallout from statements criticising the advocacy work of campaigner Rosie Batty.

The leaked private text messages were sent by federal and state Labor politicians and figures, including the then head of the key ALP women’s forum, even as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese moved to turf Setka from the party and unionists called for his resignation.

They provide a rare glimpse into Setka’s deep political connections as the union reels from a week of scandal following revelations it has been infiltrated by bikies and organised criminals and faced allegations of corruption and widespread intimidation.

The turmoil, sparked by an investigation from this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes, cost Setka his job, and has led to the union being expelled from Labor and the ACTU, as well as facing the prospect of almost all of its branches being placed under the control of an independent administrator.

NSW and Victorian MPs have already recently faced public scrutiny for supporting CFMEU officials facing criminal charges, including NSW Labor upper house MP Cameron Murphy, who last year singled out accused bribe taker, construction union boss Darren Greenfield, for acknowledgment and thanks in his maiden parliamentary speech.

Two backbench NSW Labor MPs who received $1000 in donations from the CFMEU before last year’s state election have said they will not repay the money.

The leaked texts from 2019 show some of the private dealings of Setka and his ALP supporters, including Victorian MP Luba Grigorovitch and the former head of Labor’s women’s forum Emily’s List, Tanja Kovac.

The messages reveal Kovac helped Setka craft his public messaging strategy to ward off pressure to resign after it was revealed in mid-2019 that he had subjected his estranged wife to a campaign of harassment – including calling her a “weak f---en piece of shit” and a “treacherous Aussie f---en c---” and a “f---en dog”.

By mid-June 2019, Setka was yet to face court but had said he would plead guilty to a charge of harassment and breaching a family violence order. He was also facing heavy criticism over leaked comments that he had said domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty’s work had cost men some rights.

This was enough for some Labor figures, including ACTU secretary Sally McManus, to call for Setka to resign.

It was during this time leading up to and after his court appearance that Kovac sent Setka multiple text messages of support and advice on how to handle the publicity, saying it was “v important” he “talk about the need to talk about family and gendered violence”.

On June 26, the day after he pleaded guilty and was fined $1000 in court, Kovac wished Setka “good luck” and urged him to “Be strong, genuine, sorry & the leader I know you are. Thinking of you Tanja.”

Kovac, who had her own communications consultancy at the time, was previously chief of staff to the country’s first minister for preventing family violence Fiona Richardson, who helped establish the 2015 royal commission into domestic violence.

While Albanese has repeatedly relied on his expulsion of Setka from the ALP to insist Labor had moved to isolate the CFMEU leader, the leaking of private texts between Setka and Labor politicians reveal his behind-the-scenes support from some in the party, including MPs.

The domestic violence allegations against Setka first emerged in early January 2019.

Less than a week after Setka’s initial court appearance on domestic violence charges that month, state MP Bronwyn Halfpenny texted Setka to say that she “just wanted to say thinking of you and hope everything will be ok.”

“You are a great comrade to working people so the establishment will always want to bring u down. Hope to see you soon. Xxx”

Halfpenny co-chaired the Victorian government’s ministerial taskforce on workplace sexual harassment, which also examined gendered violence, from 2021.

In September 2019, federal MP Lisa Chesters sent a text to Setka saying she had just heard him in a “tough interview” on ABC Radio National and that he had done “well”.

She also referenced Setka’s threat – contained in a leaked recording – that crossbench politicians would “wear the consequences” if they supported Coalition laws to bring in stricter integrity rules for union officials.

“Re cross-bench ‘we’re not allowed to campaign now; this is Australia?’ Needed to be said. Lisa Chesters,” the text message reads.

At the time, Chesters was Labor’s shadow assistant minister for workplace relations.

Her message was sent just days after then-opposition leader Anthony Albanese had labelled Setka’s conduct “unacceptable” and out of step with Labor values.

Chesters told this masthead on Thursday that she did not “condone family and domestic violence in any form”.

“My recollection of that specific text message was that it was in relation to a completely unrelated and industrial matter,” she said.

Others in Labor used the domestic violence allegations to sever their relationship with Setka and seek to have him held to account.

Former state Labor minister Jane Garrett, who died in 2022, agitated privately to ensure Setka lost his clout within Labor and the trade union movement after she learnt of the extent of his domestic violence related behaviour.

Previously leaked text messages also show that in June 2019 Melbourne identity Mick Gatto was sending messages of support to Setka over his domestic violence matter.

That same month, then-Rail Tram and Bus Union secretary Luba Grigorovitch – who in 2022 would become a state Labor MP with the CFMEU’s backing – repeatedly messaged Setka to offer him support and to tell him she was directing her union to back him amid the fallout from the domestic violence scandal.

“FYI I have put this out today xx” she texted Setka of the RTBU statement that said Setka had always supported RTBU members and had the “right to address personal issues with his family”.

On June 20, Grigorovitch, who did not respond to questions from this masthead on Thursday, texted Setka that she was “so pleased that we have a strategic plan going forward” and that “We will get through this John xx”.

Grigorovitch also advised Setka to rely on the behind-the-scenes advice of then-Emily’s List head Tanja Kovac to manage his domestic violence scandal. Emily’s List is a group devoted to helping Labor women get elected to state and federal parliaments.

Kovac advised Setka to highlight what she claimed were mitigating circumstances behind his domestic violence.

On June 20, Kovac texted Setka that she “was chatting with Luba and I wanted to reach out to … discuss a couple of ideas I’ve shared with her about helping people/unions understand the pressures your family has been under and how that relates to the court cases and politics of all of this”.

CFMEU official Derek Christopher (left), state Labor MP Luba Grigorovitch (second from left), former CFMEU boss John Setka (right) in June 2024 at a CFMEU event. Credit: Instagram

The message was sent two weeks after it was reported that Setka would plead guilty to charges of harassing his estranged wife, Emma Walters, and had been accused in a police statement by a former deputy president of the Fair Work Commission of repeatedly intimidating and terrifying her; and that Setka had been found by police to have called Walters 25 times and sent her 45 text messages in a single evening, calling her a “shit” a “c---” and a “f---en dog”.

Four days after her June 20 text, Kovac messaged Setka again asking if he could find supporters willing to support him publicly.

She also sent Setka advice on his public messaging strategy, including “revised statements via email”, and told him on the morning of his court appearance on June 25 not to “forget to talk about the need to talk about family and gendered violence this morning”.

A day later, on June 26, when he was about to plead guilty to charges of harassing Walters, Kovac messaged Setka “good luck” and advised him to be “strong, genuine, sorry & the leader I know you are. Thinking of you Tanja.”

On June 27, Kovac told Setka she thought his media coverage was “pretty good” and told him “Well done.”

“Remember that everything you’re saying and doing needs to still be about learning and forgiveness. See you Tuesday. Call me if you need anything. Tanja,” she wrote.

Kovac, who now acts as gender equality adviser, told this masthead on Thursday she was paid to act as a family violence and men’s behavioural change adviser to Setka and his wife, including on messaging, and made sure she got Rosie Batty’s blessing before she agreed to work with Setka.

She did not say who paid her, but said: “Any kind of support or advice that you would have within a trade union environment, there would be some support or funding for that.

“The importance for me [in addressing domestic violence] is men, as Rosie Batty has said, have an opportunity to do behavioural change.

“At the time, both Setka and his wife Emma sought advice and understanding and explaining behavioural change, family violence, safety and respect. Unfortunately, advice I gave was not heeded and I ceased my advice and counsel.”

Kovac said she saw the work as an opportunity to bring powerful change to a male-dominated union like the CFMEU and the broader industry.

“As the prime minister has recently observed, men have to be part of the solution to gendered violence,” she said. “Some men and some organisations listen and some don’t. John did not listen to my advice.”

Halfpenny did not respond to a request for comment.

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