CFMEU fights takeover of state branches

The CFMEU in Queensland and NSW has attacked the Albanese government’s bid to put the union’s construction divisions into administration.

Workplace Minister Tony Burke and former CFMEU Victorian boss John Setka. Picture: NewsWire

The CFMEU in Queensland and NSW has attacked the Albanese government’s bid to put the union’s construction divisions into administration, increasing the prospect that special federal laws will be needed to take external control of the branches.

The union’s Queensland construction division said the entire state union movement would oppose the federal attempt to install unelected administrators over its operations, claiming any alle­gations of corruption and wrongdoing against the state division had no credibility.

The union’s NSW construction division said the union was under “unprecedented attack”, telling members “governments, state and federal, the big end of town, and the ACTU want you to work for less, in unsafe conditions”.

The Queensland branch is considering opposing in court the upcoming application by the Fair Work Commission to place the construction divisions into administration, opening the way for Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke to act on his threat to bring in special legislation to fast-track the external appointment.

“We have made clear what the consequences will be if this hasn’t been resolved by the time parliament returns,” a spokesman for Mr Burke said on Thursday.

The ALP national executive on Thursday suspended the affiliation of the union’s construction divisions in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia but did not cut ties with Queensland as, in accordance with party rules, it could not be shown it had engaged in conduct that rendered it unsuitable for affiliation.

However, Premier Steven Miles said this week the state ALP would not accept donations from the union’s Queensland construction division while other branches were under investigation.

ALP national secretary Paul Erickson said the party would not accept affiliation fees or political donations from the CFMEU branches for the period of the ­suspension. “The No 1 job of any union and its officials is to look after its members. The reported behaviour is the complete opposite of this,” Mr Erickson said.

Insisting she had no knowledge before the weekend about criminal elements allegedly infiltrating the union, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the CFMEU construction division had been isolated from the peak union body since former state secretary John Setka defied her calls to resign five years ago after he said he would plead guilty to harassing his estranged wife.

“The CFMEU has been isolated from the ACTU for the last five years and it’s been a serious split. John Setka personally is a vengeful person. The ACTU and the officials of the ACTU are on his vengeance list and we have been for the past five years,” she told The Australian.

Ms McManus said after he refused to resign, Mr Setka wreaked revenge on any CFMEU officials who would not support him, including former national secretary Michael O’Connor and Mr Setka’s former deputy, Shaun Reardon

“One by one, those leaders who had union principles which were not about bullying and were about unity for everyone, he moved them aside, he went after them,” she said.

“He wreaked revenge because they did not support him.

“In the end, the only people he had around him reinforced his behaviour and wouldn’t stand up to him. That’s when they got, in my view, unmoored from union ­values.”

Ms McManus rejected any suggestion the ACTU should have known that criminal elements had infiltrated the CFMEU’s construction division.

“There’s no way whatsoever we would have tolerated anything like that,” she said.

“We didn’t tolerate DV allegations. Think about that standard. Very, very serious but like somehow we tolerate organised crime?

“I would have seen that as a red alert threat to the union movement and would have moved immediately if I had thought that was a possibility.”

She said ACTU staff had been told to work from home for the rest of the week “in an abundance of caution, for health and safety”.

“There’s been no threats but lots of people have raised with me now about being mindful of personal safety, given who we’re dealing with, and given the stance the ACTU has taken,” she said.

The union’s Queensland secretary, Michael Ravbar, said Anthony Albanese’s “autocratic attempt to disenfranchise union members has set a dangerous precedent for every union”.

Mr Albanese said the government had taken the strongest possible action to stamp out corrupt conduct.