CFMEU national construction secretary Zach Smith is not a happy camper. Normally cocksure, the 36-year-old turned antsy last week at the suggestion uninvited outsiders could soon barge into his workplace and shut down the organisation if he does not comply with their demands. I sympathise, Zach, I really do.
Despite his insistence otherwise, no-one outside the CFMEU (and probably no-one in it) believes Smith can ensure a proper internal inquiry into criminal allegations against senior union officials of the Victorian branch, following an investigation by Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes.
These officials – and this is not an exhaustive summary – have allegedly taken cash bribes, received kickbacks from developers in the form of free building work, threatened factional opponents, and boasted of controlling Victoria’s Big Build program by blocking disfavoured companies from government sites. Oh and around 20 CFMEU delegates in the state are either former outlaw motorcycle gang members or have links to these groups.
In other words, systemic corruption and mass infiltration by organised crime of an industry that turns over $206 billion annually. No big deal, really. Smith claimed on RN Breakfast it would be “unnecessary” for the federal government to appoint an independent administrator to the union. The organisation had “zero tolerance for criminality,” he insisted.
Yes, I know exactly the sort of zero tolerance you mean, Zach. It is just like my abhorrence of a medium-rare eye fillet and a good red, or my aversion to complimentary tickets to an MCG corporate box on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test. I get it.
Smith’s ‘she’ll be right’ assurances were not shared by Fair Work Commission general manager Murray Furlong, who is looking to put up to five of the union’s construction divisions into administration.
As for Smith’s protests, one need only consider, in addition to the current allegations, that the union has amassed $19 million in fines during the last eight years and was in 2022 described by a federal judge as the “greatest recidivist offenders in Australian corporate history”.
When Smith assumed his current position last year, he said he was “proud” of the union’s militancy, declaring “sometimes bad laws need to be broken”. It beats me why they are sidelining you, Zach. I have no idea why commentators say your mob needs a good dose of the salts. If you are to be believed, the CFMEU is the paradigm of good governance.
What is alleged, if true, has taken place on the watch of Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke. He is as good at ensuring construction sites are free of unlawful behaviour as he is at calling out antisemitic extremists in his Western Sydney electorate. Speaking last week, he professed surprise at the allegations.
The issue of organised crime infiltrating the union was “something I had not been previously briefed on,” he claimed.
That says it all, Tony Burke. You abolished the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) without so much as a proper briefing on the extent of criminal activity in the industry?
As former ABCC head Nigel Hadgkiss told Sky News this week, he had seen “the infiltration of organised crime, particularly outlaw motorcycle gangs” in the building industry since 2004. It was “outlandish” for senior government members to express surprise, he said.
Likewise in 2014 Victoria Police assistant commissioner Stephen Fontana told the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption that “criminal activity is under-taken by trade union officials directly or by organised crime groups on behalf of trade union officials”. Then CFMEU national construction secretary Dave Noonan dismissed that claim, saying the organisation had “zero tolerance for corruption or criminal activity”. Sound familiar?
But not only did Burke claim he had not been briefed regarding these activities. He also insisted they were “something that, as I say, (have) never heard of”.
Really? A quick check of Hansard reveals that between 2016-20, then Home Affairs/Immigration Minister Peter Dutton mentioned on five occasions the CFMEU was using outlaw motorcycle gang members as muscle.
Burke was not only present: he interjected on every occasion on a point of order. Yet now he claims the organised crime aspect was a “significant change that I’ve seen over recent days”. Granted, misleading the public is characteristic of the Albanese government, but that is a blue ribbon porkie.
Speaking of what defines this government, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s reaction was to distract through false equivalence.
“Now, to have a corrupt union official, you need a corrupt boss as well,” he said. “You need someone paying the money and so we want that to stop and to be weeded out, whether it be in unions or business.” Remind me, why is his nickname ‘Each-way Albo’?
If Albanese wants to play that game, bring it on. Take for example his statement: “It is an indictment of the leadership of the CFMEU that they haven’t been held to account.”
It is. But to have systemic corruption flourish in the building sector, you need a federal government that is oblivious to it or outright condones it. At the very least, the Albanese government is derelict. The Prime Minister was sent detailed evidence in 2022 of CFMEU officials threatening “extreme” violence and black-banning companies. Crickets.
That same year Australian Industry Group CEO Innes Willox warned that abolishing the ABCC was a “backward step for the fight against bullying and intimidation”. Two months before that, an Ernst & Young report commissioned by Master Builders Australia concluded its axing would result in a $50 billion loss to the economy as well as drive inflation. Instead an arrogant Burke declared the ABCC was “a totally unnecessary body”.
Albanese has been insipid in responding to these allegations. He has not announced a royal commission into the CFMEU. He has rejected deregistering the organisation. He has refused to re-establish the ABCC or legislate for a replacement agency. Yet he claims his government had “put in place the strongest possible measures”, as he told ABC radio last week.
“We’ve done it very swiftly, and we’re confident that it will stamp out corruption and stamp out inappropriate activities,” he said. Translation: “We’ve done the absolute minimum, and we hope and pray this doesn’t blow up before the election”. Good luck with that.
Since Albanese became leader in 2019, the federal division of the Labor Party has received a total of $6.2 million from the CFMEU. Of equal concern is the relationship of those two entities and industry super funds, where former Labor politicians retire to sit on the boards.
As this masthead reported last year, these funds have provided trade unions with $114.5 million since mid-2006. The CFMEU was the biggest beneficiary, having received a whopping $33.65 million over this period.
If you think that is brazen, just consider what Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones did upon assuming his portfolio. He attempted (unsuccessfully) to abolish a regulation instituted by the Morrison government which required that funds itemise for their members payments to unions and industrial bodies, claiming it was an “unnecessary administrative burden”.
But nonetheless the status quo is still a win-win situation – well at least it is for the unions and Labor. They profit from this grubby and parasitic reciprocity. On the downside, it has long meant a 30 per cent increase in construction costs, but it is only us mugs who cop that without a sweetener.
It makes for depressing reading, so I will finish on a positive note. You might remember last year the ACT Government’s disgraceful decision to compulsorily acquire without consultation Calvary Hospital, then operated by the Catholic Church.
Cheering on this Kulturkampf was then CFMEU ACT secretary Zach Smith, who urged the ACT government to “bring in construction crews” and “move as swiftly as possible” on the project.
“I know there will be those who whine about the compulsory acquisition princess, but a good territory government needs to think about the community first and stakeholder sensibilities second,” he said.
Best of luck accounting to the administrator at your end, Zach. I know you whine about this compulsory process, but we need to think about the community first and CFMEU sensibilities second.
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