‘We’ll make sure they’re clean’: Union to audit Labor MPs after Setka crackdown

The ETU is threatening to audit federal and Victorian Labor MPs for any history of domestic violence allegations.

ETU Victorian secretary Troy Gray. Picture: Aaron Francis

The Electrical Trades Union is threatening to audit federal and Victorian Labor MPs for any history of domestic violence allegations in retaliation for the ALP and unions moving against Victorian construction union boss John Setka.

ETU Victorian secretary, Troy Gray, a close ally of Mr Setka, said today the union would conduct the audit of Labor MPs “to make sure they’re clean” if they were going to be “judge and jury” about Mr Setka’s conduct.

Mr Setka has said he intends to plead guilty to harassment charges, including the use of a carriage service to harass a woman, when he returns to court in Melbourne next Wednesday.

“If people are going to try and do a political hatchet job on a union official then we will be looking to see if people have skeletons in their closet,’’ Mr Gray told The Australian.

“If people are going to demand a certain benchmark or standard where people should resign then let’s make sure all these Labor MPs meet that standard as well.

“If sending a text message is the standard for resignation then there definitely will be some nervous politicians out there because we will audit them.”

Troy Gray with John Setka. Picture: Supplied

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese has moved to expel Mr Setka from the ALP and the ACTU secretary Sally McManus, backed by 13 unions, wants him to resign as Victorian CFMEU secretary.

Mr Gray said Mr Setka, who has received the support of three state branches of the CFMEU’s construction division and a handful of left-wing Victorian unions, said Mr Setka would not be standing down.

“John Setka is not going anywhere,’’ he said.

The ETU and the Victorian CFMEU have threatened to cut millions of dollars in donations to state and federal Labor if Mr Setka is expelled.

Mr Gray predicted the same Labor MPs who want Mr Setka out would be asking for donations from his union at the next federal election.

“These same politicians will be there in three years’ time lined up outside the front of the ETU, Oliver Twist style, with their hands out, asking for the ETU for more porridge,’’ he said. “It’s going to be a lean and hungry time for them.”

Anti-domestic violence campaigner and former ETU communications manager, Phil Cleary, said the union’s threat to audit Labor MPs was “ridiculous”.

“We should be going back to the critical question: what does John Setka and what does the ETU think about violence against women? What do they think about the harassment of women?”, he told ABC television.

“Where does the union movement, where does Troy Gray’s union, stand on the question of the rights of women after years and years of campaigning to stop violence against women and stop men having unfettered rights to bash and kill women?”

He said it might be true that Mr Setka said nothing disparaging about Ms Batty “but why was her name being used in the context of men’s rights?”

“Why? It doesn’t make sense. If the lawyers said to John Setka because of Rosie Batty’s campaigning, men are losing rights then John Setka should have nailed his colors to the mast and told the media that, of course the lawyers said that, but he didn’t agree with them.

“I have been campaigning on this issue for 30 years. Does John Setka want to tell me that my campaigning has diminished the rights of men? I would laugh at John Setka. I would tell you that that is ridiculous.”

CFMEU position a matter for members: Andrews

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declined to back calls for Mr Setka to quit, saying leadership of the Victorian CFMEU was a matter for its members.

Mr Andrews said he supported Mr Albanese’s move to expel Mr Setka from the ALP, saying comments the union leader made about anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty were “simply not on”.

Mr Setka said the comments were taken out of context and leaked by his internal opponents to damage him. Ms McManus and several CFMEU officials have said he did not denigrate Ms Batty.

But Mr Andrews said there was “no context in which you could explain those comments” about Ms Batty.

He said the union branch’s affiliation to the ALP was a matter for the party and a “union that is affiliated is much more than any one person”.

“Who leads that union or any union is a matter for the members of that union and I would just hasten to add, unions are bigger than any one person though so let’s see how that unfolds.”