Just when Anthony Albanese thought he had got himself out of immediate political strife, along comes the union movement’s chief problem child, John Setka, to remind the Prime Minister who runs the show in Victoria.
And the feeble response from federal cabinet to the thuggish threats against the AFL risks only compounding a problem Albanese surely hoped would not resurface.
The optics of the CFMEU trying to flex its muscle again is one thing. It’s made worse by the collective unwillingness of the Prime Minister and key ministers to send a forceful message.
Setka exposes two vulnerabilities: Labor’s internal fragility – its enduring structural conflict – and political management in government.
Albanese believes government is about delivering an agenda. More often than not, governments are judged by how they deal with unforeseen circumstances.
Albanese’s poor handling of the immigration deportation disaster, and protection of a key factional ally, exacerbated it by letting it run longer than it should.
Setka’s extortionist demands ordinarily would require a swift response, with a leader coming in and smacking it on the head.
How Albanese chooses to handle this from here will either reinforce perceptions of leadership or demonstrate learned wisdom from past mistakes.
How long this is allowed to fester may determine how poorly it plays out for Labor in Melbourne. It’s not the issue it would want running in seats such as Menzies and Deakin, which the Liberals have to hold, and Higgins, which they would hope to win.
Voters in teal seats wouldn’t be overly impressed either.
More broadly, it is unexpected grist to the mill for Peter Dutton, who has seized on yet another distraction for Albanese.
Given Setka’s colourful intrusion has coincided with the Transport Workers Union’s threats against Virgin, the Liberal leader will run with this for as long as it has life, and presumably into the next and last parliamentary sitting week before the winter break.
Having let Andrew Giles off the hook over the deportation disaster, Albanese can ill-afford to allow union thugs to roam around untouched.
It only reinforces the opposition’s attempts to define Albanese as a weak and politically impotent Prime Minister.
This is a significant vulnerability for Albanese. Especially when even Labor types are starting to contrast Albanese’s response to the CFMEU with Bob Hawke taking on the Builders Labourers Federation in the ’80s.
Hawke didn’t shrug the task when confronted with militancy. He simply deregistered the union.
Ironically, most of the BLF membership has since been absorbed into the CFMEU. Since then, Labor has done little to arrest the return of the BLF culture.
In Albanese’s defence, he did sack Setka from the Labor Party five years ago.
But this only emboldened the Victorian division of the union, which holds a “weird deal” – as one Labor figure described it – with the Marles Right faction in Victoria. It wields considerable power within the Victorian ALP branch. And Albanese knows it.
As opposition industrial relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said this week: “What has booting Mr Setka out of the Australian Labor Party got to do with Mr Setka’s actions today?
“(Labor) still accepts their money, $4.3m in the lead-up to the last election. They still delivered Mr Setka’s number one demand, the abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission – one of the very first acts when they came to government.”
Setka has been a thorn in the side of Labor leaders since Kevin Rudd accused him in 2009 of destroying the Labor brand.
He has been a particular problem for Albanese since he was punted from the party.
Who could forget Setka’s tormenting call for the new Labor leader to “grow some balls” when he failed to turn up to the Victorian ALP conference?
Albanese denies his response to Setka this week has been feeble. It’s hard to read it otherwise. Or that of any other federal Labor minister.
Tony Burke’s response to Setka’s thuggery could be described by the single word the Industrial Relations Minister used to describe the behaviour: “odd”.
From Albanese’s point of view, he would be judging that to engage Setka in a public slanging match would merely elevate the dispute.
This hasn’t troubled South Australian Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas, who warned Setka of a “viciously and vociferously” forceful response should he make good on his threats to disrupt construction projects.
At some point, Albanese may be forced to take a stronger position, whether he likes it or not.
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