Labor governments pay CFMEU almost $3m in three years despite mounting scandals

Government departments have paid the scandal-plagued CFMEU almost $3 million in the past three years, despite allegations of corruption and domestic violence creating a political storm around the union and its officials.

Australian Electoral Commission data reveals Victorian and ACT bureaucrats under Labor governments transferred $2.7 million to the union between 2022 and mid-2024, even as serious allegations against senior officials emerged, such as former Victorian secretary John Setka’s conviction for harassing his wife in 2019.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in Melbourne on Monday demanding federal Labor introduce racketeering laws.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

The payments demonstrate the deep ties that flourished between the CFMEU and Labor governments before a mounting series of scandals forced Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to crack down on the union.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has used those links to increase political pressure on Albanese, challenging him to introduce new racketeering laws to target corruption in unions after this masthead and 60 Minutes this week reported multiple domestic violence allegations had been made against union-linked figures.

“The Albanese government has known for years about the CFMEU, about the abuse and the violence against women, about the extortion, about the links to the outlaw motorcycle gangs,” Dutton said at a press conference on Monday.

“All of that has been fully known to ministers in the Albanese government, and then they’ve done nothing about it.”

The Victorian Department of Education and Training paid the union more than $1 million in 2022-23 and almost $850,000 in 2023-24.

The state’s Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions also paid more than $600,000 in 2023-24. A spokesperson said the CFMEU was paid under the department’s Skills First program, which funds organisations to deliver vocational training.

“All registered training organisations, including those affiliated with unions, are subject to the same audits, reviews and compliance requirements as Skills First providers,” they said.

The ACT department of Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development paid $200,000 to the union in 2024, while the Commonwealth Fair Work Ombudsman transferred $60,000 to the CFMEU in 2023-24.

A spokesperson for the Fair Work Ombudsman said the Federal Circuit and Family Court had ordered it to make the payment because of legal proceedings. The Victorian education department and ACT department were contacted for comment.

The CFMEU and its divisions, which include maritime, manufacturing and previously mining unions that have not been accused of wrongdoing, have given more than $11 million in donations and other support to state and federal Labor since 2019.

It is not clear which division of the CFMEU received the government payments. They were made before this masthead’s Building Bad series exposed the union’s culture of corruption, bullying and violence in July 2024, leading the Albanese government to put it into administration in August.

However, the union was subject to a string of earlier controversies such as former CFMEU NSW leaders Darren and Michael Greenfield facing bribery charges from 2021. The Greenfields have not yet entered a plea and the case is ongoing.

Federal Workplace Minister Murray Watt declined to comment on the payments, but said there had been positive signs the government was cleaning up the union during a press conference on Tuesday.

“If anyone thought that an organisation that had been so deeply infiltrated by organised crime as the CFMEU could be changed overnight, I just don’t think that was realistic. This is one of the reasons why we appointed the administrator through legislation for up to a five-year term. This was always going to take time,” he said.

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