John Setka defends Mick Gatto as an ‘absolute gentleman’

John Setka has claimed he is being unfairly prosecuted for allegedly trying to force AFL umpiring boss and former building regulator Stephen McBurney out of a job, as the former CFMEU secretary defended underworld figure Mick Gatto as an “absolute gentleman”.

Setka denied all allegations against him, described his struggles with PTSD, praised Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and declared he would never vote for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in an interview on veteran radio host Neil Mitchell’s podcast.

Former CFMEU boss John Setka.Credit: Chris Hopkins

It has been six months since Setka last spoke out after the Building Bad investigation by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes exposed alleged corruption and bikie infiltration in the powerful construction union.

Setka called the allegations against him “untruths” and claimed they had hurt his mental health. He said he would never forgive a “weak” Albanese for putting the CFMEU into administration last year.

Asked if he would get back at the prime minister for going after him, Setka responded: “I mean politically if you could get him back, of course you would, that’s the game.”

Allan, Setka said, was doing a “pretty good job” as he praised her for continuing the state’s enormous program of infrastructure spending.

He said a non-union member like Mitchell could get a job on the Big Build but “I think you’d be a union member within a few days” because of the benefits it offered.

Emma Walters, centre, was found guilty but not convicted of recklessness in threatening to kill John Setka.Credit: AAP

Setka’s reemergence comes as the union’s administrator, barrister Mark Irving, told parliament an unresolved High Court challenge from other former CFMEU bosses to reclaim control of the union was stymying his attempts to weed out corruption. Setka resigned before the CFMEU went into administration and is not involved in the legal challenge.

Reports released by the administrator also noted that Gatto, an underworld figure turned industrial relations fixer, was frequently in the CFMEU’s Victorian office and described as a friend by a number of its officials.

Setka told Mitchell, whose podcast shares an owner with this masthead, that he had a good relationship with Gatto.

“He’s an absolute gentleman. He’s always been that way with me, I mean … I don’t want to get in the ring with him, but I mean, he’s a former heavyweight boxer,” Setka said.

Setka said he regretted sending abusive messages to his wife Emma Walters years ago. A magistrate convicted him over the messages in 2019. “I just think it’s sad that every man in this country gets put in the same category ’cuz of a small percentage of men that are just animals,” he told Mitchell.

Walters was found guilty but escaped conviction in 2023 for making threats to kill Setka. The magistrate in that case said she was “the victim of serious and sustained family violence.”

The former construction union boss is facing charges from the Fair Work Ombudsman over his alleged campaign to have McBurney, who used to run a federal regulator that repeatedly prosecuted the CFMEU, removed as head of umpiring at the AFL.

Setka said politicians routinely called for people to lose their jobs. He said an official at the national industrial umpire had also previously worked for the building and construction commission. “They’d all be about as unbiased the Collingwood cheer squad,” Setka said.

Setka said he suffered from PTSD and had “good days and … bad days” and sometimes did not want to leave the house or socialise.

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