Anthony Albanese acts to expel militant CFMEU boss John Setka from Labor over Rosie Batty comments

Labor leader’s call to expel John Setka from ALP is backed by Bill Shorten and Daniel Andrews.

Anthony Albanese will push for CFMEU boss John Setka to be expelled from the Australian Labor Party, declaring he “does not belong in our party”.

The Opposition Leader said he had written to ALP national secretary Noah Carroll and will move for Mr Setka’s expulsion from the party at the next meeting of the national executive.

Mr Albanese has asked for Mr Setka’s membership to be suspended before a final decision is made on his membership.

John Setka. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Mr Setka had been under increasing pressure to resign from both the CFMEU and Labor after it was reported he had told a union meeting that men had fewer rights since Rosie Batty raised awareness about domestic abuse in Australia.

“John Setka does not belong in our party, because of the views that he holds. In particular, I spoke to Rosie Batty yesterday about her concern with the views that he expressed, as she indicated she’s disappointed that this was a distraction from the honour that she received yesterday,” Mr Albanese said.

“Rosie Batty is a great campaigner against family violence and the idea that she should be denigrated by someone like John Setka is completely unacceptable to me as leader of the Australian Labor Party and I don’t want him in our party. It’s that simple.

“Just a couple of years ago, of course, he made comments regarding the children of people who work for the ABCC. Those comments were unacceptable. I called them out at the time. I have consistently called out bad behaviour, whether it be from trade unionists or employers.

“My concern here is that John Setka undermines the credibility of the trade union movement through the position that he holds and the public views that he’s expressed.”

Comments “outrageous”: Shorten

Bill Shorten has broken his silence over the Setka saga, calling the unionist’s reported comments on Ms Batty “outrageous” as he backed Mr Albanese’s move to expel Mr Setka.

A spokesman for the former opposition leader, who relied on CFMEU support when he was Labor leader, said he was a friend of Ms Batty and respected her advocacy on domestic violence.

“The reported comments are outrageous,” the spokesman said.

“Mr Shorten is a friend of Ms Batty and has great respect for her work. Mr Shorten supports the party’s actions against Mr Setka.”

“Appalling” refusal to apologise: Andrews

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also backed Mr Albanese’s move to expel Mr Setka.

“Rosie Batty is a person of great courage who has fundamentally changed the way our country views and acts on family violence. She is rightly admired by all Australians,” Mr Andrews said in a statement.

“The comments made about her by Mr Setka are disgraceful and his refusal to apologise for them is appalling.

“They cannot be defended in any context and I support the actions that Anthony Albanese has taken.”

“Reconsider your position”: Wong

Earlier Labor frontbencher Penny Wong demanded Mr Setka should reconsider his position while outgoing Senator Doug Cameron went further calling on him to resign.

“I think he should certainly consider his position,” Ms Wong told ABC radio this morning.

“Like Anthony Albanese, I believe the comments Mr Setka made are completely unacceptable. I would also make this point: they are not in step with the values of the broader labour movement or the Labor Party.”

When pushed on whether he should go, Ms Wong would only say: “I think he should consider his position.”

Ms Wong said she thought Mr Setka’s comments were “completely inappropriate” and she is on the side of Ms Batty, whose 11-year-old son Luke was murdered by his father in 2014 on a cricket pitch.

Mr Setka claims his comments were “taken out of context”.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Penny Wong.

Labor Senator Doug Cameron. Picture: Lachie Millard

Senator Cameron, a former trade unionist, declared his support for the CFMEU but condemned its leader’s comments.

“I strongly support the CFMMEU. Workers need effective and strategic unions,’’ Senator Cameron tweeted. “It’s what my union called being a ‘mindful militant’. There is nothing mindful about the alleged behaviour of John Setka. He should put the movement and members first by resigning.’’

I strongly support the CFMMEU. Workers need effective and strategic unions. It’s what my union called being a “mindful militant”. There is nothing mindful about the alleged behaviour of John Setka. He should put the movement and members first by resigning.

— Senator Doug Cameron (@SenatorDoug) June 10, 2019

Reports this morning suggested senior trade union figures aligned to Mr Setka had been privately pushing for him to resign. The Herald Sun reported today assistant secretary Shaun Reardon has fallen out with the union boss over the issue and it is understood he had made it clear internally that he believes Mr Setka’s position was untenable.

ACTU secretary Sally Mc­Manus did not use Mr Setka’s name in her original statement on Sunday condemning the CFMEU boss’s reported comments about Ms Batty. Yesterday she said Mr Setka should apologise to Ms Batty.

“If the comments attributed to John Setka reported over the weekend are correct, they are appalling and totally unacceptable,” Ms McManus said. “They do not reflect our values or the work that unions do to campaign against family and domestic violence and should be immediately withdrawn and apologised for.”

It is understood it would be up to Labor’s Victorian state conference to expel Mr Setka. One federal Labor MP said they did not know if a motion to dump the union official would succeed. “Nobody really wants to touch it. They all want to wait and see what the courts say,” the MP said.

Albo in a bind on Setka support

Anthony Albanese was praised by militant Mr Setka last year, with the union chief sharing a photo of the Labor leader shaking hands with his right-hand man Shaun Reardon.

The emergence of the photo contrasts with the Opposition Leader’s attempt to distance himself from Mr Setka’s remarks about Ms Batty.

In a tweet posted in June last year before the Super Saturday by-elections, in the lead-up to which Bill Shorten came under leadership pressure, Mr Setka said Mr Albanese was “always prepared to stand up for CFMEU members”.

“Great to have politicians like @AlboMP always prepared to stand up for @CFMEU members when under attack. Touch one, Touch all!” Mr Setka posted. The tweet, shared during the CFMEU national conference, shows Mr Albanese holding a raffle ticket and posing alongside Mr Reardon.

Mr Albanese with CFMEU official Shaun Reardon. Picture: Twitter

Mr Albanese has criticised Mr Setka over the years — including suggesting in 2017 that the union boss was a “nutter” — but both men are in the Labor Left and the now-Opposition Leader is close with the Maritime Union of Australia, which merged last year with the CFMEU. The two unions’ first joint conference came at the time of Mr Setka’s tweet, but The Australian understands Mr Albanese’s diary does not include details of a CFMEU event.

Speaking in Perth yesterday, Mr Albanese stuck by his claim he had never met Mr Setka but conceded he could not force him out of the Labor Party. “I don’t have a relationship with Mr Setka … I’m not familiar with the ongoing ­activities of the Victorian branch of the construction division of the CFMEU. It’s not my base,” Mr ­Albanese said. “As far as I know, I’ve certainly never had a conversation with Mr Setka.”

Mr Setka remains secretary of the CFMEU in Victoria, an elected position, after indicating last month that he would plead guilty to using a carriage service to harass a woman. Nine Entertainment news­papers reported at the weekend that police analysis of Mr Setka’s phone activity revealed that on a single­ evening last October he had called a woman 25 times and sent her 45 text mess­ages, calling her a “weak f. ken piece of shit”, a “treacherous Aussie f. ken c …” and a “f. ken dog”.

While Mr Albanese was critical of Mr Setka yesterday, he defended the wider CFMEU. “I have met other people in the CFMEU … there are many people in that organisation who work strongly to oppose violence against women,” he said. “I know many people should not be denigrated by the comments of one person.”

Additional reporting: Richard Ferguson, Paige Taylor