Law expert says government must legislate CFMEU fit and proper person test

Leading workplace law expert predicts it will take years to change the CFMEU’s culture.

CFMEU members protest near Brisbane’s Cross River Rail site.

The Albanese government should legislate a “fit and proper person” test for holding union office in the construction industry, says a workplace law expert who predicts it will take years to change the CFMEU’s culture.

RMIT law professor Anthony Forsyth said he expected the Fair Work Commission to apply to the Federal Court as early as this week to put several Construction Forestry and Maritime Employees Union construction divisions into administration.

He rejected Coalition calls to deregister the union, saying an administrator had proven successful when appointed to the Health Services Union.

“This is a much bigger union (the CFMEU),” he said. “I think the challenge for the administrator is much tougher because of the extent of internal resistance that they’re inevitably going to encounter and overcome, but I do think of all the options the federal government has under current law, this is the one that’s going to give us the best shot, over time, of rooting out the criminal elements within the union.”

He said the government could also implement a “fit and proper person” test as a condition for holding union office in the construction industry.

Requirements would include not being convicted of certain types of offences within a certain period of time.

As well as supporting an administrator, Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel backed a new watchdog to oversee the construction industry along with a police taskforce, but did not support reinstatement of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

“I think there is an argument that there should be something, but I think the [ABCC] specifically has been so politicised that it has been impossible for it to be effective,” Ms Daniel told the ABC.

Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

“That said, I’m not convinced an administrator will be enough … I think that it probably needs to be coupled with a police, maybe a state-federal, taskforce … to look at those criminal allegations.

“There needs to be representation for workers in the construction sector obviously, but the toxic elements of the CFMEU absolutely have to be cleaned out.

“And so maybe it is an administrator and a police investigation piece and then a form of watchdog as well.”

CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith has sacked eight Victorian union delegates who are members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, or closely affiliated with them.

Sources said the sackings ­occurred in recent days after Mr Smith took control of the ­Victorian branch following alle­gations that it had been infiltrated by criminal elements connected to underworld figures and bikies.

The CFMEU Queensland and NSW branches have 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 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 federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke to act on his threat to bring in special legislation to fast-track the external ­appointment.

At the weekend, the NSW branch posted on its Facebook page that “those who are hell-bent on destroying the CFMEU will destroy the construction industry and the race to the bottom will ­prevail”.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief ­executive Andrew McKellar said it was worrying to see that elements of the CFMEU’s construction ­division might contest the application for an administrator to be appointed.

“There needs to be a strong commitment from the federal government, from state governments, territory governments to root out the corruption that’s been going on in this sector, to take firm action, and ensure that there is strong enforcement of standards in the future,” Mr McKellar said.