Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven AM.
Speaker 2: It's been nearly four months since all branches of the Construction,
Speaker 2: Forestry and Maritime Employees Union were forced into administration and
Speaker 2: hundreds of union officers were kicked out. The government wanted
Speaker 2: a clean slate after allegations of bullying, intimidation and infiltration from.
Speaker 1: Outlaw biky gangs.
Speaker 2: Now some of those underworld figures are seeking payback and
Speaker 2: the man tasked with cleaning up the union is facing
Speaker 2: death threats. Today, Associate editor of the Saturday Paper, Martin
Speaker 2: Mackenzie Murray on the challenge of cleaning up the CFMAU
Speaker 2: and the enduring influence of John Setke and his loyalists.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, December seventeenth.
Speaker 2: So, Marty, the last time that you were on seven
Speaker 2: AM back in July, John Setka had just stepped down
Speaker 2: from the CFM you, following allegations of corruption and links
Speaker 2: to organized crimes. So since that moment of his departure,
Speaker 2: what has happened at the union?
Speaker 3: So the point of Sekka's sudden and immediate resignation, he
Speaker 3: was preempting what he knew would be a series of
Speaker 3: scandalous stories in the Nine Papers. It was a kind
Speaker 3: of an earthquake within the construction industry and certainly the union,
Speaker 3: and in a number of pieces whistle blowers had painted
Speaker 3: a picture of a culture of kickbacks, intimidation, blacklisted workers
Speaker 3: and this kind of sinister enmeshment with outlaw bikeys.
Speaker 4: The union is in crisis and even with John Saik gone,
Speaker 4: means deeply compromised. The Brier Pays, Bikeys and underworld figures
Speaker 4: aren't going anywhere fast and the risk is without action
Speaker 4: from governments and the labor movement, their hold in the
Speaker 4: construction sector will only get stronger.
Speaker 3: Since then, legislation was passed to put the CFMEU into administration.
Speaker 3: The Fair Work Commission appointed Mark Irving Case in late
Speaker 3: August to serve as the independent administrator of the union
Speaker 3: and his inheritance, shall we say, has been incredibly complicated
Speaker 3: and it's a very difficult and arguably dangerous position that
Speaker 3: he's assumed.
Speaker 1: So what sort of danger are we talking about, Mary.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been reported that Mark Irving as the administrator.
Speaker 3: In October, I believe received information from the Australian Federal
Speaker 3: Police that there are credible death threats out against him.
Speaker 3: Mark Irving now travels with the private security detail. The
Speaker 3: ACT used boss Sally McManus, who has long been critical
Speaker 3: of John Sakka. She gave an interview to the ABC
Speaker 3: a couple of months ago where she said, you know,
Speaker 3: her life had substantially changed this year.
Speaker 5: I've had to change my routines. I lived between different places.
Speaker 5: That's life, unfortunately at the moment, because we're standing up
Speaker 5: to those people and that you know, is a price
Speaker 5: to pay for that. But have the police been helpful, Yes,
Speaker 5: they've been helpful.
Speaker 3: But what I heard last week in my reporting was
Speaker 3: that the principal targets of retribution from rogue elements, and
Speaker 3: by that I mean underworld figures outlaw bikes is the
Speaker 3: old leadership because they had made allegedly had made deals
Speaker 3: with Bikeis, certain bikeies and certain names were put to me.
Speaker 3: Quite dangerous and unstable figures. Ice ravaged was the description
Speaker 3: that was put to me. And now seeking redress, they
Speaker 3: are now well seeking some returns on their investment for
Speaker 3: deals that can no longer be.
Speaker 6: Fulfilled because the CFMEU is now in administration.
Speaker 3: That's right, and crucially to this was their concern that
Speaker 3: perhaps the so called riots of twenty and twenty one
Speaker 3: in front of the Melbourne officers of the CFMEU their
Speaker 3: use of bikes for muscle and to enforce blacklists. That's
Speaker 3: where the involvement with and indebtedness to bikes really accelerated.
Speaker 2: Right, But this old leadership people in the union loyal
Speaker 2: to John Secer have they mostly been removed from a CFMU.
Speaker 7: Now or not? Well?
Speaker 3: SECA was He became kind of notorious for stacking various
Speaker 3: parts of the union with loyalists and people that critics
Speaker 3: of SECA felt weren't actually qualified for their job. In fact,
Speaker 3: their only qualification was deference to John Secker.
Speaker 7: I have seen things in the past. We've had our
Speaker 7: own issues in there with people and we have over
Speaker 7: the years we have dealt for a lot of issues.
Speaker 7: We have removed people from office. How have you dealt
Speaker 7: with them? We've dealt for it internally.
Speaker 3: I mean now, whilst there have been some senior suspensions,
Speaker 3: Setka resigned, his counterpart in New South walest Darren Greenfield,
Speaker 3: is suspended and awaiting trial. In fact, there are still
Speaker 3: a substantial number of those loyalists retained in various roles,
Speaker 3: whether they be shop stewards or whether they be administrative positions.
Speaker 3: And what I've heard is that new staff, that is
Speaker 3: staff brought on by Mark Irving, some of those stuff
Speaker 3: have suspicions about other stuff and are concerned that their
Speaker 3: work might be undermined by these old SETCA loyalists that
Speaker 3: remain in the union. Elsewhere, certain bands of people loyal
Speaker 3: to SECCA are behaving in such a way as it
Speaker 3: contradicts the independent authority of the administrator, and it creates
Speaker 3: a fear rational or not amongst members that the old
Speaker 3: guard will come back, that the administrator is insufficiently strong
Speaker 3: to reign in these kind of rogue influences, rogue factions
Speaker 3: still loyal to SECTCAM.
Speaker 2: After the break, the alleged illegal practices still happening under
Speaker 2: the administrators. Knows Marty, You've been talking to various CFMEU
Speaker 2: sources about the administration and the work that it is
Speaker 2: now doing. So what sense are you getting of how
Speaker 2: it's going.
Speaker 3: It's all incredibly complicated. I should I should point out
Speaker 3: that these sources, who are union officials and union members,
Speaker 3: they are people who themselves have been intimidated, blacklisted, threatened.
Speaker 3: They've risked a fair amount and I guess that's a
Speaker 3: sort of very personal and heightened context for their frustrations
Speaker 3: with the administration. They you know, understandably want the risks
Speaker 3: that they've taken to pay off, and that payoff, that
Speaker 3: is the substantial and meaningful reform of their union. And
Speaker 3: so what was put to me in the last week
Speaker 3: is from the office of the National Secretary, Zach Smith.
Speaker 3: A text message was sent to shop stewards, of which
Speaker 3: they are roughly six hundred, and in it he reminds
Speaker 3: shop stewards to enforce what is an illegal policy, and
Speaker 3: that's no ticket, no start, and what does that mean.
Speaker 3: What that means is refusing entry to non union workers,
Speaker 3: and that's been illegal for some time. And the CFMAU
Speaker 3: in that regard are serial offenders in factors. Two years ago,
Speaker 3: the High Court rest it's frustration with the union, saying
Speaker 3: that they were notoriously serial offenders in that regard, and
Speaker 3: they said that their indifference to financial penalties is such
Speaker 3: that it suggests that they just consider these finds as
Speaker 3: the cost of its preferred business model. And on this
Speaker 3: I put a number of very specific questions to the
Speaker 3: CFMU administrator. They would not speak so that Now, the
Speaker 3: frustration with the officials and members that I've been speaking
Speaker 3: to is not only that brazenness, but that it sends
Speaker 3: a mixed message. So who's actually in charge here?
Speaker 2: They asked, And like you said, you put some questions
Speaker 2: to the administration which they wouldn't answer. But what have
Speaker 2: they said about the progress they've made so far when
Speaker 2: it comes to cleaning up the union?
Speaker 3: It's very difficult. Like I should point out that Mark
Speaker 3: Eving's inheritance is a it's a complicated one. So simultaneously
Speaker 3: the administration is it assumes an investigative capacity or responsibility
Speaker 3: as well as an administ straight of one. It is
Speaker 3: also fairly early days for its existence, and still they're
Speaker 3: determining the scope of its investigations. They're determining what things
Speaker 3: to specifically investigate, and they counsel patients. But when the
Speaker 3: administration came in, it had a legislated lifespan of three
Speaker 3: to five years. Well at the moment we're looking at
Speaker 3: three to four months. There's also a High Court appeal
Speaker 3: which is due to be heard very soon and which
Speaker 3: says that the administration itself is invalid. So that has
Speaker 3: I think encouraged a certain caution and slowness as well.
Speaker 3: But when things like this are happening, it gives the
Speaker 3: sense that the second loyalists that remain in the union
Speaker 3: are operating in a way that may undermine the independence
Speaker 3: and the credibility of the administration. I'll give you another example.
Speaker 3: In October, there was a delegates meeting whereby emotion was
Speaker 3: passed to conceive a donation kitty or ousted or suspended
Speaker 3: members like Seca, although he wasn't suspended, he'd resigned, and
Speaker 3: what was requested was one hundred dollars donation, with the
Speaker 3: prospect of future donations being made as well amongst shop stewards.
Speaker 3: New Times that by roughly six hundred, and you've got
Speaker 3: a little bit.
Speaker 7: Of money there.
Speaker 3: The idea for that was a donation kitty that would
Speaker 3: benefit those who were perhaps unemployed. But that happened before
Speaker 3: their very substantial payouts were made public, and now there's
Speaker 3: some frustration that they were being asked to make these
Speaker 3: donations when John Setka, for example, it's been reported, has
Speaker 3: received about a four hundred and fifty thousand dollars payout,
Speaker 3: so there are questions about what use that money will
Speaker 3: be put to. I know the cfmeu's administrator is aware
Speaker 3: of those donation requests and doesn't like them, but would
Speaker 3: respond formally to my questions about its appropriateness. But in
Speaker 3: response to some very specific questions I put to them,
Speaker 3: there were only confident in responding with a one line,
Speaker 3: rather platitudinous response, which was the administrator is committed to
Speaker 3: keeping the union strong and ensuring its returned to the
Speaker 3: genuine democratic control of the membership, free of criminality and corruption,
Speaker 3: and delivering better safety, pay and conditions, which is what
Speaker 3: you would expect. But that kind of calming restatement of
Speaker 3: mission belies what is a much more complicated and arguably
Speaker 3: dangerous situation.
Speaker 6: So Seca might be gone, but his presence is still
Speaker 6: very much being felt. It sounds inside the CFMAU. What
Speaker 6: is John Secca doing now, Buddy.
Speaker 3: Recently, John Seca made a worker's compensation clem for PTSDA,
Speaker 3: an affliction he says was acquired through his work as
Speaker 3: union leader. A few things contributed to that, he says,
Speaker 3: number of death threats he's received in his time, and
Speaker 3: also his attendance, who was kind of a one of
Speaker 3: the first on the scene of the twenty thirteen Swanston
Speaker 3: Street war collapse, which proved fatal, and he was there
Speaker 3: giving aid. Now officials and member said to me, they
Speaker 3: love the fact that Seca has made this claim.
Speaker 1: They love it. Now.
Speaker 3: What they say is this application for workers' compensation seems
Speaker 3: really hypocritical, because Seca famously was pretty indifferent to appeals
Speaker 3: for comfort and sympathy. In fact, one of his favorite lines,
Speaker 3: and several people told me, you know, having heard this
Speaker 3: directly from Secca over the years, was they should drink
Speaker 3: a cup of concrete and harden the fuck up. And
Speaker 3: so there is some bitter astonishment amongst union members about
Speaker 3: that application for compensation. One said, members see this as
Speaker 3: a money gram. Another said he's got more front than myers.
Speaker 3: A third said, this rat is claiming PTSD. Are you
Speaker 3: aucking kidding me? And whatever existing or surviving sympathy for
Speaker 3: John Seca still exists, they say his application or workers'
Speaker 3: compensation has eroded that, and that ring of people who
Speaker 3: didn't have much respect for him but kept their mouth
Speaker 3: shut may shrink, and people become kind of a little
Speaker 3: braver in speaking out about him.
Speaker 2: Marti, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Also in the news today, The five remaining members of
Speaker 2: the Bali Nine, returned to Australia after nearly two decades
Speaker 2: in an Indonesian prison, say they're looking to reintegrate into society.
Speaker 2: The five Australians were part of a group convicted for
Speaker 2: their roles in an attempt to smuggle heroine from Indonesia
Speaker 2: to Australia in two thousand and five. A statement issued
Speaker 2: on behalf of the men said they were relieved and
Speaker 2: happy after Indonesia's decision to allow them to come home.
Speaker 2: And Treasurer Jim Chalmer's overhaul of the Reserve Banks Board
Speaker 2: has been finalized, with six new appointees to the RBA's
Speaker 2: new Governance Board and Monetary Board announced. The appointments will
Speaker 2: begin in March when the RBA's board is formally split
Speaker 2: into two, with one to control interest rates and the
Speaker 2: other to manage the bank's affairs.
Speaker 1: I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. See you tomorrow,