Madonna King: Imagine if principals waged war on parents like the CFMEU cowboys

Imagine if teachers told parents they had a “bullet with your name on it’’, or called them “f***ing dogs”, they’d be instantly removed. It’s so far-fetched it’s laughable - but not for the CFMEU, writes Madonna King.

Sunday Mail columnist Madonna King. Picture David Clark

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The chance of the Olympic Flame showcasing Brisbane to the rest of the world on July 23 2032 is in hands of a bunch of abusive, misogynistic and violent thugs.

And yet that group, cowering behind a CFMEU banner, continues to be given a legitimacy it doesn’t deserve with the big CBUS (the industry superfund it spawned) sign flying atop the home of government in Queensland, at 1 William Street.

It should be ripped down this week. And despite what Industrial Relations Minister Jarrod Bleijie argues, the CFMEU deregistered, and buried.

And its epitaph needs to signal an ongoing reminder of its ruthless and barbaric reign where it targeted women, encouraged violence, and had an utter contempt of the law.

Geoffrey Watson, SC, whose stellar report was released last week, makes the point that the CFMEU actually thought it was, or should be, running the Queensland Government and breaking laws was just “an integral part of the CFMEU business model’’.

Thousands of CFMEU union members march in a protest from Queens Gardens to the Federal offices at Waterfront Place, Brisbane in 2023. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The violence it brought to the construction sector was so varied it was difficult to catalogue and its “horrifying abuse’’ included trapping and threatening a public servant, and using tampons to intimidate a female Minister. A security upgrade was given to one minister because of the abuse levelled at them.

So which ministers in the former State Labor Government were aware of this vicious and despicable behaviour? And did they try hard enough to stop it?

It’s a cop-out, too, for the Crisafulli Government not to kill off the CFMEU, on the back of Watson’s findings.

Just, for a minute, consider what would be the case if these accusations were being levelled at another group, not the CFMEU.

If this was a company, directors would be dismissed. We’d be lining up to picket its stores, and it would be sent broke.

What if it was a group of school principals waging war on parents, telling one they had a “bullet with your name on it’’ and calling others names like “c***’’ and “f***ing dog’’?

They would be removed from their offices and their sanity questioned.

Indeed, it’s so far-fetched, it’s laughable.

But so is the way these CFMEU troublemakers, or thugs, have been allowed to treat women.

Former CFMEU officials Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham. Photo Steve Pohlner

These are all men; fathers and grandfathers, brothers and uncles with children. And yet Watson found by “far and away the worst hypocrisy from the CFMEU relates to the treatment of women’’.

“The leadership speaks of its concern for women, but then viciously attacks the women who oppose it in degrading sexist terms.’’

What must the behaviour of these men be like in their own homes? My heart breaks for their partners and sons and daughters. “Oh, there’s my Dad. He’s just told a kid at my school his father is a f*** c***’’????

And that’s only the start of the abuse and threats delivered by these union low-lifes, with people warned “we know where you live’’ and “we know you have two young sons’’.

Imagine if a group of women were found to be targeting men in this way, writing abuse on doorways with plastic appendages, locking them in offices and threatening to track them down?

It’s absolutely implausible, to say the least.

Those arguing against deregistering the CFMEU, on the back of these findings, say it would become a lawless cowboy operation, not caught in the rules and regulations that govern unions.

“The problem with dissolution of the CFMEU is they will then be unregulated…if they’re unregulated, they will be a law unto themselves,’’ Jarrod Bleijie said.

CFMEU protest on Mayne road at Bowen Hills at peak hour earlier this year.

But isn’t that exactly what it has been doing? How could it be any worse? And Watson himself warns that “unless it is stopped the CFMEU violence in Queensland will get worse’’.

The CFMEU has had a checkered history with its roots in several other unions. But it’s time to start again, because it’s failed spectacularly to do what it should be doing - and that is advocating for building and construction workers.

Perhaps the advice of Steven Miles, our former Labor Premier, might come in useful. Dr Miles holds a PhD from the University of Queensland. And his topic? Rebuilding worker involvement in the Australian trade union movement.

Australia’s trade union history is a proud one; built on the back of a determination to support and protect workers.

But the CFMEU has lost the right to rebuild itself, or to have any say around workers and safety - because it’s been found to be far worse than any threat affecting those it was set up to protect.

Its funeral should be quick. Few eulogies and even fewer tears.

Originally published as Madonna King: Imagine if principals waged war on parents like the CFMEU cowboys