Queensland Police asked to probe United Workers Union recordings

Secret recordings were made for more than a year in the offices of Queensland’s most powerful union, which is facing calls to be investigated by police over alleged breaches of the Privacy Act.

United Workers Union Queensland boss Gary Bullock. Picture: Peter Wallis

Secret recordings were made for up to nine months in the offices of Queensland’s most powerful union, which is facing calls to be investigated by police over alleged breaches of the Privacy Act.

The United Workers Union, headed by Queensland Premier Steven Miles’s self-described mentor, Gary Bullock, issued an email to staff on Thursday blaming a contractor “error” for turning on the audio recording capability of the office’s network of closed-circuit TV cameras.

A leading law expert said police should be “interested in investigating” for possible breaches of the Invasion of Privacy Act.

Queensland’s Liberal National opposition is referring the matter to police after Mr Miles avoided questions about the union, of which he is a member, on Thursday.

Mr Bullock said a contractor enabled audio capability during an upgrade of the office’s CCTV network without the union’s knowledge in the past 12-18 months. He said it was restricted to cameras in the “foyers” of the multistorey union building.

A source told The Australian they saw a CCTV device in the conference room of the union building in Brisbane’s South Bank at a meeting of officials a number of years ago.

Revelations about the secret recordings emerged in an unfair dismissal case of a senior union official, accused of taking drugs at work.

The investigation into former UWU political co-ordinator Matt Lawrence is believed to have been prompted after the discovery of drug paraphernalia in the conference room.

Mr Lawrence, a former chief of staff to Miles government minister Mick de Brenni, was sacked in May over his alleged drug use in October 2023. It is believed he was alleged to have been using methamphetamines, also known as ice.

A preliminary hearing of his unfair dismissal case in the Fair Work Commission was told his “conduct was captured on a CCTV system installed at the UWU’s Brisbane office, which produced a video and audio recording of Mr Lawrence’s conduct”.

The union told the commission it was only during the investigation into Mr Lawrence that it was discovered the cameras were also conducting audio recordings.

The UWU did not respond to questions about whether there had ever been cameras or recording devices in the conference room of its offices.

In the email to staff, Mr Bullock said cameras had been around the office “for many years”.

“These were installed for security reasons and to ensure the safety of staff,” he said.

Cameras in the union’s carpark and external areas of the building neither “had, nor have, audio capability”, Mr Bullock said, but those in the foyers did.

“However, we were not aware of this at the time that they were installed,” he said.

“Further, the cameras are supposed to be installed with the audio function disabled but due entirely to an error on the part of the contractor who installed the upgrade, these cameras had audio enabled.”

Mr Bullock said the union did not retain footage for longer than 30 days and became aware “late last year” that audio was being recorded. Mr Lawrence last week secured an order from the commission for the union to hand over the recordings.

The union had opposed the order saying there was a risk “disclosure might result in contravention of the legislation”.

John Swinson, who specialises in privacy law at the University of Queensland, said it was illegal for people to covertly record conversations they are not part of.

“Because secretly recording conversations is a criminal offence under Queensland law, this is something Queensland Police should be interested in investigating,” he told The Australian.

Unions often raised privacy issues relating to workplace surveillance when advocating for their members in industrial disputes, Professor Swinson said.

“So it’s hypocritical for a union to advocate for privacy when it can’t even look after its own workplace and can’t even properly configure its CCTV cameras,” he said.

LNP integrity spokeswoman Fiona Simpson said recordings could have breached the law “while capturing the murky dealings and decisions of faceless men pulling the strings of the Labor government’s decisions”.

“Police and the State Archivist must investigate these allegations of a most serious nature – I will be referring this matter to both authorities,” she said.