Tony Burke accuses John Setka of thuggery and bullying

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has accused CFMEU Victorian leader John Setka of bullying, thuggery and waging a petty personal vendetta.

Tony Burke has accused CFMEU Victorian boss John Setka of thuggery. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has accused CFMEU Victorian leader John Setka of bullying, thuggery and waging a petty personal vendetta against the AFL, declaring the threats against the league motivated the government to immediately bring in laws to break up the union.

CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith attacked Labor’s decision to introduce laws next week to allow the union’s manufacturing division to split from the broader union as a “dangerous precedent” that would be used by a future Coalition government to trample on workers’ rights.

Mr Burke said the government had been considering legislation to allow the manufacturing division to split from the union since February and had been hopeful before Mr Setka’s threats against former building watchdog and AFL umpiring boss Stephen McBurney that the union’s rival divisions could “sort it out between themselves”.

“Once the AFL attack was made, our patience came to an end,” Mr Burke said, adding the “government decided it is time now to draw the line”.

He said the government decided the manufacturing division should not be left in a position where they were expected to stay in an organisation whose “big public issue was about trying to get someone fired rather than trying to provide people with job security”. “It has been a ridiculous piece of attempted bullying,” he said.

Mr Burke said he was frustrated that some people would see Mr Setka’s behaviour as representative of the union movement “and it’s not, it’s simply not”.

He said union members wanted job security and better pay, not for unions to pursue “petty vendettas”. “They don’t want media statements about vendettas, they don’t want bullying, they don’t want thuggery,” he said.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus accused Mr Setka of waging “personal vendettas” and backed the government laws. “It has become clear this issue cannot be resolved any other way,” she said.

Mt Setka did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday, but Mr Smith said the government “should not be intervening in determining union coverage through legislation which poses a huge risk of leaving workers worse off”.

“Using legislation to decide on union coverage would set an incredibly dangerous precedent a future anti-worker government could use to trample on workers’ rights,” he said. “The government needs to scrap this plan and show it respects the very clear rules around union amalgamations that have been backed in by the Federal Court.”

The manufacturing division backed the government, saying the new laws cleared the way for rank-and-file members to vote to be “free from the shackles of the dysfunctional” broader union.

Michael O’Connor, the division’s national secretary who had a bitter falling out with Mr Setka, said Mr Burke was “100 per cent right in his assessment that the status quo in the CFMEU is dysfunctional and cannot continue”.

He said the manufacturing division applied to the Fair Work Commission over two years ago to put the demerger question to rank-and file members but the construction division made “efforts to block the vote”.

He said manufacturing division members had supported a private members bill by senator Jacqui Lambie earlier this year which, if passed, would have facilitated a rank-and-file vote. “We thank Senator Lambie and Minister Burke who are backing us in to give our members an opportunity for a brighter future outside of the CFMEU and a more respected and active role in the labour movement, free from the shackles of the dysfunctional CFMEU.”