Setka power play: brutal and radical

Former CFMEU secretary reveals plans for formal takeover of south Australia by militant Vic branch.

Former SA secretary of the CFMEU Aaron Cartledge. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

A former secretary of the CFMEU who claims his 30-year union ­career was destroyed by John Setka has spoken for the first time about the culture of intimidation within the construction union and revealed Mr Setka’s plans for the formal takeover of southern Australia by the militant Victorian branch.

In his first interview since being ousted last year as South Australian secretary of the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union, Aaron Cartledge, 49, has documented the extent to which he was hounded and abused by Mr Setka, who he said would routinely describe the branch as “f..king bludgers” and “useless c..ts” in front of the national leadership.

“I would go into these meetings and he would unload, calling us weak pricks because we weren’t radical enough, didn’t strike enough or hold enough pickets, and that the best thing that could happen to the SA branch was that we could all get f..king shot,” Mr Cartledge said.

“At the same time, they started sending over these Victorian organisers and it was like an end-of-year footy trip crossed with Blazing Saddles. They just blew into town and wanted to start kicking in doors and forcing their way on to sites.”

John Setka. Picture: David Crosling

Mr Cartledge’s alle­gations were put to the South Australian branch of the CFMEU, which did not respond. The Australian tried to contact Mr Setka last night but he did not return calls.

Mr Cartledge’s comments were strongly backed yesterday by the SA Master Builders Association and state Treasurer Rob Lucas, who said “the cancerous ­influence of militant eastern states unionism” had no place in South Australia.

The Australian can now reveal full details of how Mr Setka’s infiltration of the South Australian branch exploded in 2016 when he labelled the division “weak c..ts” who deserved “a good f..king” in an email sent to the union’s ­national ­leadership.

Mr Cartledge was the only senior official not included in that email but national secretary Dave Noonan alerted him to it, saying it was unfair Mr Setka had excluded him and made the allegations behind his back. However, Mr Setka continued with his campaign against Mr Cartledge, installing his hardline Victorian backers in the South Australian branch.

They include new Adelaide CBD organiser Taivairanga Savage, whose Facebook profile picture shows him holding a middle finger up to the camera and wearing a black hoodie that reads “God forgives, the CFMEU doesn’t” in Gothic type.

Taivairange Savage. Picture: Facebook

The towering New Zealander, who dwarfs the heavily built Mr Setka in a photograph on Facebook of the pair together, was sent from Victoria to South Australia and is now considered the likely candidate for state secretary at next year’s CFMEU elections.

Mr Setka is expanding his influence in the union at the same time he is fighting moves ­by Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese to expel him from the Labor Party. Mr Albanese vowed to dump Mr Setka after allegations emerged that he denigrated anti-violence campaigner Rosie Batty — a claim Mr Setka denies.

Mr Cartledge said Victoria’s infiltration of the South Australian branch had been “an absolute disaster” for the union. As a result of its increased militancy, it had been hit with millions of dollars in fines for illegal entry of worksites under the guise of safety ­inspections.

He explained how the ­Victorian branch started to exert influence over South Australia in late 2014 with the first of three two-week blitzes on building sites, resulting in 20 court cases against the South Australian branch for breaches of right-of-entry laws.

“Up until that point, we had only had a couple of prosecutions in the Federal Court and all of a sudden we were in there all the time,” Mr Cartledge said.

The branch spent $413,194 on legal costs last year, up from $19,634 the previous year, and has now been forced to sell its Adelaide headquarters to reimburse the CFMEU’s national office for the cost of those fines, which Mr Setka had originally promised to pay through the Victorian branch.

Mr Cartledge was ousted from his job by John Setka. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Mr Cartledge said the state branch had only recently amended its rules so that union election candidates need only have been members in South Australia for one year, down from three, making it easier for “blow-ins” from interstate to run.

“The Victorians already run the Tassie branch and with our 2500-odd members here they would love to be responsible for running SA too,” he said. “They have made no secret of their desire to have control over southern Australia and this is their chance.

“These blokes have got no understanding of South Australia. This is not a radical state, it’s a conservative state, a state with a fragile economy, but they have no interest in the greater good. They crashed in here in the wake of Holden closing and started going berserk when the state could least afford it. It’s all about using their strength and presence to ­maintain control and boost their numbers.”

Mr Cartledge was state secretary for six years and an official for 18 years but both he and his former deputy, Jim O’Connor, walked away from their roles late last year after being stripped of their powers to sign enterprise agreements or appoint officials. He has since let his membership lapse. “It was devastating,” he said. “But I got to the point where I would wake up in the morning and I just hated the idea of going to work.”

Mr Cartledge remained popular within the South Australian union, having seen off a direct ­attempt from a Setka-backed candidate, Jack Merkx, to oust him at the 2016 CFMEU state elections.

He stared down the challenge and was returned with a 75 per cent vote. He won rare praise yesterday from Ian Markos, state head of the Master Builders Association. “I had plenty of blues in my time with Aaron and some of the old guard before him who were BLF blokes, but at the end of the day you could sit down and a deal with these guys because they knew their members needed jobs and that in a small state like ours we were all in this together,” he said. “What we are starting to see now is anarchy, pure and simple, and if it continues, then I think deregistration of the union has to become an option.”

Mr Lucas, who had flagged plans to introduce a state version of the ABCC if Labor had won this year’s federal election, said he was “deeply disturbed” by the rising influence of the Victorian CFMEU in South Australia.

“The last thing we need is the cancerous influence of militant eastern states unionism creeping over here,” the Treasurer said.