ACTU’s Sally McManus says Australia needs to “stand up” against organised crime allegations in CFMEU
Trade unionist Sally McManus said Australians need to “stand up to organised crime” and claims she was never aware of alleged crime syndicates within the CFMEU.
Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus said Australians need to “stand up against organised crime” and denies she was aware of alleged crime syndicates within the Victorian branch of the CFMEU.
Speaking on ABC’s 7.30, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said it needs to be clear what is being dealt with, saying organised crime has “infiltrated one of our unions”.
It comes as the Victorian construction branch of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union faces allegations of intimidation, union thuggery, and employing bikies and people with organised crime links on government-funded construction sites.
The ongoing Nine media investigation prompted the resignation last Friday of the union’s Victorian state secretary John Setka, who denies the allegations, calling them ‘malicious attacks’.
Speaking on Tuesday evening, Ms McManus said: “This is a serious matter and we will not tolerate it, we will stand up against it, we will do whatever is necessary to kick them back out of our movement and to close the door shut”.
“It’s a serious matter when organised crime get their tentacles into any union and every measure has to be taken to get rid of them.”
Ms McManus said union members should cooperate with police.
“Once you know that organised crime is actually in a union, you’ve got to take measures to do everything you can to get rid of it,” she said
Ms McManus, who is the secretary of the peak body representing unions, was asked by host Sarah Ferguson if she had ignored allegations about the CFMEU due to fears of the union’s “power and influence”.
She said she had never heard rumours about organised crime within the CFMEU until the 60 Minutes report on Sunday.
“Here I am saying we will stand up against organised crime,” Ms McManus said.
“I never heard rumours of organised crime being involved, there were Facebook posts of people....that people allege were bikies or used to be bikies.
She said she had raised the social media posts with relevant national leaders of the CFMEU at the time, saying she “made it very clear” there was no place for it in the union movement.
The ACTU secretary continued to deny knowing about the allegations.
“Sarah, it might surprise you, I don’t know. I don’t know much about bikie gangs,” Ms McManus said.
“That’s not my area of expertise. When people have pointed out a Facebook post that’s got a picture of someone in it that they alleged was connected to this or that, I raised that immediately with people. I didn’t know myself whether that was true.”
When asked why the ACTU waited for the investigation by Nine Newspapers to come to the conclusion there was a “truly rotten” division within the union, Ms McManus “rejected” the claim.
“What evidence is there of this type of thing happening before? I’m genuinely shocked and absolutely furious about it. There would be no way we would be sitting back and not acting if we knew this were the case,” she said.
Victoria to outlaw bikies from construction sites
Victoria will move to outlaw bikies from construction sites and the state ALP will ban donations from the CFMEU amid the fallout from allegations against the state branch.
Premier Jacinta Allan said on Tuesday her government was preparing to toughen “anti-bikie laws” which could make it easier for police and the courts to “prevent certain individuals from associating with each other”.
The Bill would be introduced next month and be a priority for the parliament, Ms Allan said.
“The criminal organisations control Amendment Bill 2024 will give Victoria Police the powers they’ve asked for and the powers that they need,” Ms Allan said.
“It will be a tool to help authorities to crack down on outlaw bikers on worksites.”
Fallout from the allegations also prompted Ms Allan to request the state Labor Party to suspend the construction division of the CFMEU and end political donations from the union.
While the Premier would not say how much the Victorian Labor Party had received in donations from the construction division of the CFMEU, she said she they had not made specific donations to her campaign.
On Tuesday, Ms Allan also flagged she would establish a way for whistleblowers to speak out against construction companies and construction unions, acknowledging “gaps in current reporting and complainant systems”.
Ms Allan said she would not suspend CFMEU-affiliated work sites, saying it would harm tens of thousands of workers and prevent them from going to work.
“That’s not a plan. That’s an extreme attack on workers, an extreme attack on job and an extreme attack on the projects our growing city and state needs,” she said.
Karl accuses CFMEU boss of ‘cover up’
Earlier on Tuesday, CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith remained defiant against a furious grilling by Today host Karl Stefanovic, who accused the union boss of “covering up” the organisation’s “alleged corruption”.
Stefanovic asked Mr Smith: “How long have you been covering up your union’s alleged corruption for?”
Mr Smith, however, maintained the “union has covered nothing up” and said there was “no place for criminality in our union”.
He also said the CFMEU had placed its Victorian branch into administration and had appointed an independent investigator to test the claims.
However, Stefanovic returned fire and said: “So essentially you’re taking the ‘I know nothing‘ defence. It defies belief.”
Mr Smith then accused Stefanovic of “putting words into my mouth” and said the union needed to have processes that “affords people the presumption of innocence and procedural fairness”.
“That’s not an accurate reflection of what I said,” Mr Smith added.
Further explosive claims published by Nine media on Tuesday revealed both then Victorian deputy premier Jacinta Allan and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received letters detailing the CFMEU’s alleged violence and intimidation in 2022.
The claims made by an Indigenous labour-hire firm also detailed incidents of officials banning non-union affiliated firms from major state and federal construction projects.
Ms Allan took a year to respond and referred the allegations to the federal government.
On Tuesday, the premier said she hadn’t addressed the issue quickly enough.
“People coming forward with critical information about conduct on work sites don’t deserve to get bounced around between agencies … government processes must meet the expectations of complainants,” she said.
“They must meet the expectations of the community. That’s also what this review will address.”
Federal reaction to allegations
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the ALP executive would consider the move in a meeting scheduled for Wednesday as well as a further sanctions against the CFMEU.
The union has only been suspended from the ALP in Victoria, with South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas reportedly advocating for similar action in his state.
“That’s a matter for the party and obviously that will be considered in due course,” Mr Conroy said.
“What I’m focused on … is what can we do as a federal government to stamp out the sort of behaviour that’s been reported and that’s why (Workplace Relations Minister) Tony Burke has asked for options from his department and all options are on the table, up to and including deregistration of the union.”
Senior opposition frontbencher Simon Birmingham said the response from Mr Albanese and Mr Burke had been “far from believable” and called for the reinstatement of the controversial building watching.
“Concerns about the CFMEU have been around for a long, long time,” he told Sky News.
“Now the Albanese government chose to get rid of the watchdog; they chose to ease up in terms of scrutiny of the CFMEU and Australians and are now paying a price in higher road costs and construction costs, higher building costs for our hospitals and schools, all of that flows through to higher housing costs
“And what have Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke been doing? Well up to now they’ve been letting them off the hook and making life easier for them and now they’re pretending they’re surprised about this behaviour.
“Well, it’s time for action, fast action, strong action from the Albanese government.”
Originally published as ACTU’s Sally McManus says Australia needs to “stand up” against organised crime allegations in CFMEU
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