Steven Miles cuts ties during probe into CFMEU

Steven Miles will stop meeting with the CFMEU and his party will no longer accept its donations until police can ‘confirm’ allegations of bullying, intimidation and bikie links are not occurring in Queensland.

CFMEU members blocking Cross River Rail workers from entering the Roma Street station worksite in Brisbane on Tuesday. Picture: David Clark

Labor Premier Steven Miles will stop meeting with the CFMEU and his party will no longer accept its donations until police can “confirm” allegations of bullying, intimidation and bikie links in the militant union’s Victorian branch are not occurring in Queensland.

Mr Miles said there were no ­active investigations into Queensland members of the CFMEU but he had asked the state’s police commissioner to speak with counterparts in Victoria.

“The commissioner has given me his assurance that he will report back to me the outcomes of that conversation and if there are any matters that should be investigated here in Queensland,” he said.

“I have also spoken to the state secretary of the Labor Party and confirmed that while the CFMEU has not donated to the Labor Party for some time, we will not be accepting donations from the CFMEU while this cloud … while these allegations are being investigated.”

Mr Miles had been under pressure from Liberal National Party deputy leader Jarrod Bleijie to cut ties with the CFMEU ahead of the October state election.

“The militant behaviour of the CFMEU must be called out, holding infrastructure projects to ransom and intimidating workers on job sites is unacceptable,” he said.

The Victorian branch of the CFMEU was placed into voluntary administration by its national office on Monday, with Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan referring allegations of criminal behaviour to police and the state’s anti-corruption commission.

It comes as more than 100 workers protested outside the Queensland Labor government’s largest infrastructure project – the Cross River Rail – and the CFMEU launched strike action over a long-running pay dispute on the $6.3bn project.

Construction workers holding flags and signs saying “never cross a picket line” and “CFMEU here 4 the blue are you?” protested outside a number of sites on Tuesday, including Roma Street and Albert Street in the CBD.

Only about 150 CFMEU members have been given legal protection to launch industrial action against their employer, contractor CPB. Negotiations between CPB and the CFMEU – which have been running for eight months – broke down again this week, with strike action expected to continue until at least Friday.

CFMEU assistant secretary Jade Ingham said the contractor had rejected calls for an effective heat policy – a clause to prevent the exploitation of labour hire workers, “industry standard” RDOs and equity for traffic controllers in the agreement.

A CPB spokeswoman said there were “concerning reports from our people of intimidating behaviour by union representatives which prevented workers from attending site”.

“As always, our people are our highest priority and CPB Contractors condemns any acts of intimidation,” she said.