State government to call commission of inquiry into CFMEU

There has been something rotten inside the CFMEU for years, and the foul odour has crept across Queensland. So news that the union will face a commission of inquiry is welcome.

The state government will today announce a commission of inquiry into the CFMEU.

Something rotten has been residing inside the core of the CFMEU for years, and the foul odour has crept across Queensland.

From the state parliament to suburban construction sites, the malign presence of this union has been diminishing Queensland economically, politically and culturally for decades.

Which is why the news today that the CFMEU will face a royal commission-style inquiry is so warmly welcomed by this newspaper. After all, we were the first to call for it – in Friday’s editorial.

The findings of a report into the internal workings of the CFMEU commissioned by administrator Mark Irving, KC, and released last week, were confronting enough.

But the author of that report, Centre for Public Integrity senior counsel Geoffrey Watson, SC, was heavily constrained by the very nature of his inquiry

CFMEU Qld leaders Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham. File picture

Watson reported that the union actually intended to inflict physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse on others, and used threats and coercion deliberately to cause fear.

Those threats and intimidation could be directed at women and children, Watson found.

Yet Watson’s report, by his own admission, “only scratched the surface.’’

With no powers to summon witnesses nor cross examine them under oath, key figures inside the union including former leaders Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham were free to decline to contribute to the Watson report.

That will not be the case under the new commission of inquiry.

Many Queenslanders will remember the royal commission into Australian unions established in 2014. The Queensland sittings exposed an ugly culture thriving inside the CFMEU, best personified in the role of one witness, Dave Hanna.

Hanna, a former CFMEU president, was exposed on tape as a foul-mouthed bully who frequently claimed memory loss when it came to answering specific allegations.

By 2018, he was found guilty of destroying tonnes of documents which may have been needed by the royal commission.

By 2019, he was sentenced to two years in jail for receiving $161,000 in home renovations paid for by a building company, but by then was already serving a six-year sentence for a rape not connected to his role with the union.

Former CFMEU president Dave Hanna was sentenced to two years in jail for receiving $161,000 in home renovations paid for by a building company. File picture

That a man of Hanna’s calibre had advanced into the executive level inside the union speaks volumes as to how the CFMEU judges character.

This new inquiry, with its enormous powers to compel evidence, gather information and, perhaps most importantly, hold public hearings open to the media, has a weighty task ahead but is, unquestionably, good news for the state.

Hopefully it will serve as a pivotal point in the evolution of the union movement, banishing the violence and thuggery to history and helping to restore decency and honour to a wider union movement which has, historically, served our state and our nation so well.

A ‘good’ killer? Sorry, there's no such thing

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington acted quickly when the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council recommended that character references be restricted for convicted rapists during sentencing hearings in court as a way for them to try to get a lesser punishment.

The recommendation was made in December last year and a bill was introduced into state parliament in May.

It is a welcome reform – particularly given the added trauma that it imposes on rape victims to hear of their attackers’ so-called “good character”.

But questions are now being raised about whether that should be extended to convicted killers.

Vicki Blackburn, whose daughter Shandee was killed in 2013, has called on the state government to extend the new laws to those convicted of murder.

Victims’ Commissioner Beck O’Connor has also publicly called for character references to be scrapped.

This is reform worthy of the Attorney-General’s consideration because as Ms Blackburn – now a victims’ advocate – says: “Look at what they’ve done and it’ll tell you what kind of person they are”.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Melanie Pilling, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details are available at www.couriermail.com.au/help/contact-us

Originally published as State government to call commission of inquiry into CFMEU