‘Let rogue CFMEU officials take their medicine’, says judge

A Federal Court judge says the CFMEU should stop paying its officials’ fines when individuals are found to have broken the law.

A Federal Court judge has suggest­ed the construction union should stop paying its officials’ fines when individuals are found to have broken the law.

Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union officials Anthon­y Bragdon and Anthony Kong broke right-of-entry laws at a construction site at Sydney’s domestic airport in 2013, judge Geoffrey Flick found.

He is yet to impose penalties but Justice Flick appeared to criticise the union’s tradition of paying its officials’ penalties, in his judgment last week. “If the primary purpose of imposing a penalty is deterrence, there may be little ­deterrence if a penalty imposed upon a union official is simply reim­bursed by his union,” he said.

The case was brought against the CFMEU officials by the Fair Work Building and Construction Agency. Mr Kong apparently told a project manager he was crocodile hunter Steve Irwin when asked to provide his details.

“Whatever may have been the reasons why Messrs Bragdon and Kong behaved in the manner they did, their conduct brought no ­credit to themselves or to the union that they represent,” Justice Flick said in his decision.

“Once on site, it has been further concluded that they purported to exercise powers which they knew they did not possess. They behaved in a manner which was abusive and misleading. Their conduct can only be described as contemptuous of the limits to their power and the people on site with whom they were dealing.”

The court found that Mr Kong and Mr Bragdon entered the site without personal protective equipment, which was a safety requirement. They said they had been invited on to the site.

Once there, they said to workers involved in a concrete pour: “Get off the deck, we’re stopping the pour, this is unsafe. This site is shut.” When supervisors and foremen asked why they should stop the pour, Mr Kong replied: “They’re a pack of murderers (the head contractor), get off the deck, it’s not safe.”

In his liability judgment, Justice Flick said one witness “gave an ­account of Messrs Bragdon and Kong ‘barg(ing) on to the site’ and ‘screaming at us that the site was unsafe and we had to stop pouring concrete’.”

Justice Flick said Mr Kong could accurately be described as a “smart-arse”. His suggestion regarding the payment of officials’ fines follows a suggestion last month by Federal Court judge John Logan that the union be deregistered, after he fined the CFMEU and its officials $545,000 for unlawful coercion at a Grocon site in Brisbane.

This amount, as well as a landmark $3.55 million in damages the CFMEU has agreed to pay to Grocon to settle the long-running Myer Emporium case, and whatever damages are determined from the latest decision, mean the union could be facing a total bill in excess of $5m.

The royal commission invest­igating trade union corruption and governance has already been called upon to consider recommending the deregistration of the CFMEU.