John Setka’s demise ‘won’t stop militants’, Aaron Cartledge warns

The most high-profile victim of John Setka’s brutal takeover of the South Australian CFMEU has sounded a warning on the national spread of Victorian militancy.

John Setka, left, and Aaron Cartledge.

The most high-profile victim of John Setka’s brutal takeover of the South Australian CFMEU has warned that the resignation of the Victoria construction boss does not guarantee an end to the national spread of Victorian CFMEU militancy.

Lifelong CFMEU member Aaron Cartledge devoted almost two decades to the union, his final six as SA secretary before being ousted in 2018 at the behest of Setka.

The more moderate union boss fell foul of Setka in the late 2010s with Setka labelling the SA branch “weak c....s” who “deserve a good f...ing” in an explosive profanity-laden email sent to every state and national CFMEU office bearer demanding intervention in SA.

The trigger for Setka’s rage was a visit over Christmas to Adelaide with his estranged ex-wife, SA-born Emma Walters, during which Setka was appalled to see construction workers on the tools at a city building site during what he regarded as the holiday season.

Victorian-backed interstate CFMEU organisers moved into SA, with the branch having a major jump in legal bills for unlawful entry prosecutions and builders reporting harassment by the union over spurious safety concerns.

One local crane operator spoke out when the CFMEU demanded his firm sign a new enterprise agreement paying workers bonuses for turning up at work on time and for not damaging company equipment. After going public the picket escalated and the crane company agreed to sign the EBA and refused further comment.

SA Master Builders Association chief executive Will Frogley had the windscreen wipers snapped off his MBA-branded work car and had pro-CFMEU graffiti written on other MBA vehicles.

The issue became a major embarrassment for Premier Peter Malinauskas, who forced the SA ALP to hand back a $125,000 donation from the Victorian CFMEU after the vandalism at the MBA.

Cartledge famously likened the takeover to “a cross between Blazing Saddles and an end of year footy trip” in his first tell-all interview with The Australian in 2019.

This week, the ex union boss said he continued to have concerns because the CFMEU had formally altered its constitution so that the SA branch, along with Tasmania, would continue to be run out of Melbourne.

He said the Victorian CFMEU had “never understood” that SA was a more collegiate and collaborative work environment where many smaller family owned construction firms enjoyed a good relationship with their workers.

“We have different history, right from our foundation,” Cartledge said. “We have got a very different economy and unless you were born here in SA you don’t understand the industry. All my family are in the building industry.

“The economic responsibility that comes with your role as the peak union in construction, you cannot do the job properly without understanding SA.

“That was always my point to John – you don’t understand SA. I never pretended to understand Victoria. We have a very small economy, we have to work with other unions that have demarcation disputes, with employer associations, with governments, to deliver the right mechanisms and the right outcomes for SA. It’s an industry here that has lots of peaks and troughs. It was a real struggle for building companies to keep working year in year out, to train workers, retain workers.

“That’s why there is a real importance through this administration process that the federal government and the state government lobby very hard to split the SA branch away from Victoria so that SA members can elect their own secretary.”

Mr Cartledge said he shared the concerns of the SA building industry about the moves by workers entitlement fund Incolink – which is run by and helps fund both the Victorian CFMEU and the Victorian MBA – to steamroll its way into SA and take over the local scheme BIRST.

He also said the Victorian control of the SA branch meant bigger construction firms interstate with a history of collaborating with the CFMEU would now dominate the SA building economy.

“There are billions and billions of dollars of infrastructure work going in the next decade, a lot of that being conducted by major companies outside of SA that are influenced by vested interests,” he said. “It is only SA companies on those projects that will train SA workers and retain SA workers so that they flow back through the economy. Local leadership needs to have the autonomy to make those decisions about agreements, structures, procurement methods, and lobby government to continue to put SA companies first.

“Ultimately every final decision comes out of Melbourne. Vested interests for Melbourne companies and Melbourne funds become the preference to SA companies and funds. That’s my big concern.”

Mr Cartledge said he felt no great delight at the demise of Mr Setka. “It gave me a bit of a smile but also made me sad for what is a great union,” he said.

“There are so many good CFMEU members out there. Every day there are hundreds of men and women on building sites who just want to go to work and have a safe workplace. It’s mixed emotions really.”