CFMEU protest: Andrews faces losing significant political skin if riots continue

Victorian State Secretary of CFMEU John Setka (hand in air) attempts to talk to construction workers. Picture: David Crosling

Rioting thugs knee deep in a pandemic outside the CFMEU’s Melbourne headquarters have provoked a serious challenge for Dan Andrews and an even bigger tactical dilemma for police chief Shane Patton.

Andrews faces losing significant political skin if the rioting continues while Patton’s long term credibility hinges on crushing the illegal dissent.

It is one thing to protest peacefully, quite another to resort to violence.

The rioting is probably the most extreme protesting since the 2006 G20 meeting, which was largely left wing inspired but caused mayhem in the Melbourne CBD.

Police have bottles and flares throw towards them during the CFMEU protest. Picture: Getty

There is an argument that then police chief Christine Nixon never fully recovered from the fallout amid wide accusations that the force failed to provide enough force 15 years ago.

Patton today has the same challenge but in a much more highly charged environment.

The numbers of protesters are markedly smaller in 2021 but the landscape is much more complex.

Millions of people have watched the protests on TV and online from their homes while abiding by the directions of the chief health officer.

Meanwhile, lawlessness breaks out at the weekend and then on Monday, with no regard to the sacrifices made by an overwhelming majority to curb the virus.

CFMEU Victorian boss John Setka was doing the rounds of morning TV on Tuesday and it says a great deal that the man who has made militancy an art form is distancing himself so strongly from Monday’s protest.

With his union office trashed, Setka conceded, however, that there were some construction industry members in the protest.

But, he claimed, the vast majority were right wing thugs and anti-vaccine agitators.

He may be right, but this doesn’t diminish the perception that an industry that has had an easy ride during the pandemic is out of control.

Police pictured clashing with protesting workers at the CFMEU headquarters in Melbourne.

The Andrews government has afforded the construction sector significant latitude in its lockdown rulings.

So much so that it is fair to ask whether there has been overt favouritism in the rules.

This has meant hundreds of thousands of workers have been able to collect a pay check during the hundreds of days that Melbourne has been shut down under the health orders.

While most of us have been locked in our homes, construction workers have been able to zip across Victoria to their jobs, potentially carrying the virus with them.

Indeed, the suggestion is that the government was already moving to shut down construction after the industry was linked to hundreds and spreading the virus into the region.

Andrews’s decision to shut virtually all construction in Victoria for a fortnight underpins how seriously the government is treating both the insubordinance and the broader health risks.

Andrews will also be deeply mindful of the perception that Labor is too close to the CFMEU and that the Premier is sympathetic towards Setka.

There is no evidence of the latter, with Setka insisting on Tuesday that he had neither met nor spoken to the Victorian Premier. Ever.

While Andrews is not, in a sub-factional sense, aligned to Setka, it is pretty much inconceivable that the pair haven’t been in the same room; even if that room is very large, like ALP state conference at Moonee Valley.

Patton will take some comfort that the hard core, right wing elements among the protesters do not appear to be particularly well organised and are relatively small in number.

The biggest danger is if they decide to starkly elevate the violence, which cannot be ruled out.

It’s why he really has no option but to crush the dissent and get the rabid elements off the streets.

It’s sad to have to write this.

The only alternative is that the thugs discover peace late in life and protest safely with one eye on their grievances and the other on the greater good.

Over to you, chief commissioner.