Editorial: Stories of CFMEU coercion just keep getting worse

The commission of inquiry into the CFMEU cannot come soon enough – it is seriously overdue, writes the editor.

Industrial Relations Minister Jarrod Bleijie is right to question if the generous Best Practice Industry Conditions that have provided astonishingly generous working conditions to members of the militant construction union CFMEU were negotiated in good faith, as stipulated in the Fair Work Act.

We all knew it, but the whistle was blown on the disgraceful way some CFMEU leaders behaved in a report into its conduct this month that has led to a commission of inquiry into the union.

As we exclusively report today, Mr Bleijie is now pointing out that some of those so-called BPIC agreements were often signed by businesses while the CFMEU “held a gun to their head” by disrupting construction sites and threatening violence.

Mr Bleijie says he is confident the commission of inquiry will hear witnesses testify that they simply would not have signed the deals they did with the CFMEU had they not at the same time been facing threats from members of the union.

If so, he says, that would expose the contracts that were not entered into in good faith – and so would breach commonwealth legislation (as the Fair Work Act stipulates enterprise bargaining should be underpinned by simple good faith).

It is a fair point. As we have said here before, what was exposed in the review undertaken by Geoffrey Watson SC at the behest of the union’s administrator was shocking even to those who had an inkling of how bad things were. It was so shocking, the report even warned: “Some of which follows in this report will certainly be distressing to some readers. It includes violence and threats toward women and, in one instance, toward a child.”

And the account of the threats, the violence, the misogyny and the political interference by the CFMEU in Queensland that followed over the past decade was based on the evidence of just 55 people who were brave enough to speak to Mr Watson, despite there being no protection for them beyond his promise to not publish their names. There is no doubt the investigation only just scratched the surface of what has been going on – a concession the report made.

Indeed, now we learn that a Gold Coast property developer apparently paid $110,000 to a gangland associate to secure industrial peace with the CFMEU – a revelation that prompted Mr Bleijie to yesterday expand the commission of inquiry’s terms of reference to investigate any infiltration of criminal gangs in Queensland’s union movement, and provide powers to compel gangland figures to provide evidence.

Mr Bleijie said: “It’s important that this royal commission has all the powers necessary and all the terms of reference as sufficiently broad as possible to investigate not only the industrial disputation that we’ve seen over the last 10 years on construction sites, but also the underworld, underbelly, criminal activity, criminal gang links.”

We could not agree more. This story just keeps getting worse.

The terms of reference of the commission of inquiry and who leads it will be announced next week. It will have the power to call witnesses and order documents to be produced. It cannot come soon enough, as this is something that is seriously overdue. Again, we say congratulations to Premier David Crisafulli and his government for moving to establish it.

MARK OF SUCCESS

The best thing about Queensland is, of course, its people. And it is always great when we take a moment to celebrate outstanding contributions made by Queenslanders to our great state – as was the case last night at the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame event.

There were six inductees to that Hall of Fame, established in 2009 to publicly recognise the contributions “made by leaders of business to the reputation of Queensland and its economic and social development”.

This year’s list included our city’s Mr Entertainment Harvey Lister, the regional chairman and chief executive of venue management firm Legends/ASM Global. Over his many decades in the industry, Mr Lister has been involved in more than 40,000 concerts and events – a truly astonishing number when you consider if that was one event every day of the year, it would take 110 years to reach that milestone.

Also in this year’s inductees are fashion legend Keri Craig-Lee, pharmaceuticals entrepreneur Euan Murdoch, and pioneering motoring industry businesswoman Betty Byrne Henderson – who died earlier this year, aged 93.

Sunny Queen Eggs and Buderim Ginger were the other inductees, joining the 99 already in the Hall of the Fame, including The Courier-Mail, which was inducted in 2015.

The Hall of Fame has become a great tradition, and a terrific and thoughtful way to celebrate the contributions made to our state by businesses and businesspeople. We congratulate this year’s inductees.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Stories of CFMEU coercion just keep getting worse