OPINION
It’s an old accusation that “Labor is run by the unions”. It’s an accusation not without foundation: after all, Labor is called that precisely because of its historic ties to organised labour. The Australian Labor Party’s foundational moment was the 1891 shearer’s strike. In 1963, the politically-devastating “Faceless Men” photo showed Labor leaders Arthur Calwell and Gough Whitlam waiting out in the cold of a Canberra night, while inside, a coterie of mostly union leaders decide their election policies for them. Until just a few years ago, Labor’s “60:40 Rule” meant that union delegates rather than party rank-and-file had the biggest say on party policy.
Even as Labor has steadily abandoned the working classes, its ties to the union movement (itself, increasingly unrepresentative of the majority of workers) have remained. It’s their main source of income, after all.
But being seen to be tied to a violently militant union, let alone one with alleged ties to organised crime, though, has always terrified Labor. It’s why the Cain government in the ’80s was the one to move against notorious unions like the Painters and Dockers Union, and the Builders Labourers Federation.
Now, Labor governments in multiple states, as well as the federal government, are taking on the muscle of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU).
Premiers have joined in condemning the CFMEU over corruption claims as each moves to clamp down and urgently remedy state-registered unions.
So far, the NSW, Victorian, and Queensland governments have announced their intent to appoint administrators to state branches. Some flagged changing laws to enforce the appointments. Canberra likewise threatened legislation to force administrators on to the union’s operations if required. The Australian Council of Trade Unions has suspended the CFMEU’s construction and general divisions.
It follows footage released on Wednesday of CFMEU NSW secretary Darren Greenfield allegedly being passed a $5000 bundle of cash as part of a suspected kickback deal. He was charged in 2021 with a series of bribery offences, although he denies the allegations, which remain before the courts.
The CFMEU has so far stood by Mr Greenfield and resisted calls to suspend him, pending the case’s outcome.
The union’s controversial leader, John Setka, has already resigned.
A months-long investigation by the Nine Network aired allegations that bikies and criminals are acting as CFMEU delegates and are being awarded high-paying government-funded projects, including Victoria’s $100 billion ‘Big Build’ infrastructure pipeline. Other allegations included the placement of criminal figures in influential union posts, potential kickback schemes to CFMEU members and evidence of correspondence between Setka and underworld figure Mick Gatto.
At the same time as Labor governments are tough-talking on the CFMEU, Labor’s deep entanglements with the union are proving an embarrassment.
A company run by brothers known to police and championed by the CFMEU has ballooned into one of NSW’s biggest construction labour-hire operations, with the union’s backing enabling it to secure lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts.
The revelations will place immense pressure on the Minns government, which has been effectively supporting “persons of interest” whose firms are – with special union support – winning subcontracts on Labor government projects.
One of Australia’s biggest builders, John Holland Group, is also involved, with a leaked internal document suggesting the company planned to strike a secret memorandum of understanding (MOU) last October with the union to only source labour hire from three CFMEU-preferred companies, including Zenith, on the NSW taxpayer-funded M7-M12 project.
The dynamic is also seen in Victoria, where CFMEU officials have pushed a small number of union-affiliated companies, led by a firm called Top Up Labour, onto major Victorian government projects.
The whole thing is reading like something out of Hugh Selby Jr’s classic urban noir, Last Exit to Brooklyn – complete with a corrupt union with its fingerprints all over a fat pension fund.
What about the CFMEU’s affiliated super fund, Cbus? They are conjoined twins […] the government should ban Cbus from any involvement with the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF).
The HAFF is a $10bn Labor scheme to bankroll social housing.
The dual hatted Wayne Swan, who is both chair of Cbus and federal president of Labor, locked Cbus into the HAFF even before it passed the parliament.
In November 2022, Mr Swan committed $500m of Cbus member funds to Labor’s HAFF.
Cbus has kicked millions back to the union, in the form of “contracts” and “sponsorship agreements”. In the 2022–23 financial year, the CFMEU trousered $1.25m of Cbus members’ retirement money. The 2014 royal commission into union corruption found that Cbus members’ private contact details were leaked to CFMEU officials. Two Cbus officials were convicted, after “mixing Cbus/CFMEU/Labor business”. One Cbus official, Lisa Zanatta, “admitted to the Commission she was a member of the CFMEU and had attempted to become a Labor candidate in the state seat of Altona”.
Back then, two-thirds of Cbus directors were CFMEU officials. Today, three of the apparent 14 directors are from the CFMEU.
Only two could be considered to be independent – one of which is Wayne Swan. He would not pass an independence test in corporate Australia.
It’s quite the tangled web. Or house of cards.
Who knows what this stoush between the bruvvas and their former mates in Labor governments will blow out in the weeks to come.