Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media. I'm Daniel James. This is seven AM.
Speaker 1: This week nine yewspapers published detailed allegations of widespread corruption,
Speaker 1: criminal infiltration, and a gamut of other nefarious activities within
Speaker 1: the ranks of the CFMAU. Stories of underworld figures trading
Speaker 1: their leather for high viz bucky helmets for hard hats,
Speaker 1: all in order it is alleged to get a slice
Speaker 1: of the biggest pie of all taxpayer funded projects. The
Speaker 1: scandal is set off wave after wave of ramifications. Who knew, what,
Speaker 1: when and when it all means for some of the
Speaker 1: largest infrastructure projects this country has ever seen. Today Martin
Speaker 1: Mackenzie Murray on the fallout from the scandal and its
Speaker 1: potential ramifications. It is Friday, nineteenth of July. Martin Australia's
Speaker 1: highest profile union, the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees young
Speaker 1: in to see if MU has been thrust into the spotlight,
Speaker 1: this time against its will, with a range of allegations
Speaker 1: of corruption and other nefarious activities relating to organized crime.
Speaker 1: It's a story almost as big as some of the
Speaker 1: egos involved.
Speaker 2: What's happened so last Friday?
Speaker 3: The head of the Victoria, Tasmania CFMAU branch John Secker
Speaker 3: announced his resignation.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm stepping down as the secretary of this union
Speaker 4: as of tonight. I'm just sick of all the stories.
Speaker 4: I'm sick of all the false allegations, and I'm sure
Speaker 4: the members are too, so Hopefully by me stepping down
Speaker 4: it'll actually stop some of these just malicious and false
Speaker 4: accusations to just keep.
Speaker 3: He was preempting a series of kind of squalid revelations
Speaker 3: revealed by several nine reporters.
Speaker 1: A once proud union that defends the rights of workers
Speaker 1: on the take and in bed with criminals.
Speaker 2: It's rotten to the core.
Speaker 5: You've got standover going on extortion, going on contracts being
Speaker 5: awarded that shouldn't be awarded.
Speaker 3: It involves the kind of intimate infiltration of organized crime,
Speaker 3: especially bikies, into the CFMEU, their use as security and
Speaker 3: shop stewards, something that's caused immense resentment and sometimes fear
Speaker 3: amongst CFMEU officials. A kind of cozy network of kickbacks,
Speaker 3: that is, secret arrangements with builders to favor contracts. And
Speaker 3: I think significance to all of this as well is
Speaker 3: it's implications for the Victorian government and its ambitious big build.
Speaker 5: Take for example, the big build that goes on here
Speaker 5: in Victoria. They're going to do some building or construction somewhere.
Speaker 5: Contract will go out, the usual people will apply, there
Speaker 5: will be pressure from within the other companies won't get
Speaker 5: a look in. You've got to be with the CFMAU.
Speaker 3: And then there's John Saka's personal behavior as well.
Speaker 2: What message was that sending.
Speaker 1: Well, I think the message is quite clear, and that
Speaker 1: was you speak out against us.
Speaker 2: We know where you are and we can get to you.
Speaker 2: We know where you live. Now.
Speaker 3: Saker is a man who for a long time has
Speaker 3: denied so I mean countless allegations of his own capacity
Speaker 3: for thuggery and vindictiveness. And even amongst those inside the
Speaker 3: union who knew what was coming, I knew how severe
Speaker 3: the allegations were that would be raised. We're still surprised
Speaker 3: at Sakka's resignation, so accustomed were they to his pugnacity,
Speaker 3: his stubbornness, his ability to survive any number of scandals.
Speaker 1: So, as you said, in one of these allegations, the
Speaker 1: once immovable John Seca resigned effectively immediately. What other for
Speaker 1: that has there been.
Speaker 2: It's been considerable to say, to say the least. Where
Speaker 2: to begin.
Speaker 3: Interestingly, the CFMU is National Secretary Zack Smith. He became very,
Speaker 3: very anxious and wanted to preempt any federal intervention. He
Speaker 3: does this by coming out earlier this week and saying
Speaker 3: that the national branch would assume administrative control of the
Speaker 3: Victorian branch, and he goes on a media blitz.
Speaker 6: Zack Smith is the National Secretary of the cfimyun our
Speaker 6: guest sax Smith, Welcome.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Patricia Tony. Now this was kind of this
Speaker 2: desperate hal Mary Pass.
Speaker 3: I think to preempt whatever federal intervention might occur, including
Speaker 3: the nuclear option of total deregistration of the Union. And
Speaker 3: what transpires is zax Smith effectively humiliating himself attempting to
Speaker 3: hold two irreconcilable positions.
Speaker 2: So one is that the allegations.
Speaker 3: Are so severe, the degradation of the Union so great,
Speaker 3: that it requires this dramatic intervention of the national branch
Speaker 3: assuming administrative control.
Speaker 7: Well, as part of this administration, I'm in the process
Speaker 7: of standing up an investigative process to investigate any allegations,
Speaker 7: to test them, and obviously if there's any wrongdoing found,
Speaker 7: people will be removed from our ranks.
Speaker 3: On the same hand, in the same breath, Zach Smith
Speaker 3: celebrates John Sacker and says his legacy will be an
Speaker 3: admirable one. He proposes John Sacker as a working class hero,
Speaker 3: and unsurprisingly, the journalists there was a particularly humiliating interview
Speaker 3: on the Today Show with Karl Stefanovic.
Speaker 2: They ridicule him the appropriate action. So essentially, you're taking
Speaker 2: the I know nothing of defense.
Speaker 6: Well, well, Carl, that's not an accurate reflection. No, wait
Speaker 6: a second, let's be very clear on this, right, you're
Speaker 6: putting words into my mouth.
Speaker 3: And now the other kind of transparent absurdity here is
Speaker 3: that he asserts that the union itself can investigate itself.
Speaker 3: How in any reasonable world can you be trusted in
Speaker 3: any credible way to conduct your own inquiry into your
Speaker 3: own union's alleged corruption.
Speaker 6: Well, like I said, this investigation will have independence, This
Speaker 6: investigation will draw out, drawing outside expertise and legal advice
Speaker 6: and outside scrutiny to get to the bottom of any
Speaker 6: alligation independent.
Speaker 2: Also, now this is laughed at. It's laughed at, in
Speaker 2: fact by the federal government.
Speaker 3: Tony Burke, the Employment Minister and Workplace Relations Minister begins
Speaker 3: the process of appointing an independent administrator. What's more, he
Speaker 3: asks the Australian Federal Police to investigate the union.
Speaker 8: The General Manager of the Fairwork Commission is the best
Speaker 8: person placed to take this action. The action does have
Speaker 8: a series of complexities under the Fair Work Act, a
Speaker 8: series of various conditions that the General Manager is currently
Speaker 8: taking advice on elsewhere.
Speaker 3: The new South Wales Premier and Victorian Premiere disavow the CFMAU.
Speaker 3: They say that they will not be accepting any donations
Speaker 3: from them. Victoria Police says it's undertaking several investigations, including
Speaker 3: one into Derek Christopher, who was a sort of protege
Speaker 3: of John Seckers and his presumptive successor.
Speaker 1: So the fall it has been far and wide. What
Speaker 1: about the union itself. If you've been speaking to people
Speaker 1: within the union, what's been their reaction.
Speaker 3: There's a pretty I mean, for some weeks now, I've
Speaker 3: been speaking with a considerable number of union officials and members,
Speaker 3: both current and former. There's been a consistent theme that
Speaker 3: their emotions are intensely conflicted. They have gratitude for the
Speaker 3: journalists who have done this great reporting. There's some relief
Speaker 3: that this extreme and dramatic public exposure has happened. There's
Speaker 3: some fear from whistleblowers of vengeance, of revenge. There's also
Speaker 3: great kind of shame and sadness at the degradation of
Speaker 3: their union.
Speaker 2: And there's also a lot of exhaustion.
Speaker 3: I mean it, really, I don't think I can overstate this,
Speaker 3: that the intensity of conflicted emotions that members are feeling
Speaker 3: now is really considerable, as well as the uncertainty about
Speaker 3: kind of what comes next and how reform might occur,
Speaker 3: if at all. But there's also this bitter incredulity that
Speaker 3: it has taken journalists and not any number of law
Speaker 3: enforcement agencies or governments or statutory.
Speaker 2: Bodies to do this.
Speaker 3: The reporting has been immense, necessary, impressive, but the dubiousness
Speaker 3: of the CFMEU, the funk of corruption, the infiltration of
Speaker 3: organized crime, is one of Victoria's worst kept secrets.
Speaker 1: After the break the title links between the cme you
Speaker 1: and the Victorian labor government. How close is too close?
Speaker 1: At the heart of a lot of this activity in Victoria,
Speaker 1: in particular Marty, has been the activity around what Victoria
Speaker 1: calls the Big build what is the big build, what
Speaker 1: are the projects involved? And how is the CFMU inserted
Speaker 1: itself as a player in these massive projects.
Speaker 3: The Victorian Labor government's signature was this greatly ambitious infrastructure project, roads, tunnels,
Speaker 3: round networks and the CFMU is formally affiliated with the
Speaker 3: Labor Party. It comprises a part of the Labour's left faction.
Speaker 3: As such, it has an influence in preselections, it can
Speaker 3: influence policy. It's also a substantial donor to the Labor Party.
Speaker 3: In fact, in twenty twenty two, the CFMU was the
Speaker 3: largest donor to Daniel Andrew's reelection campaign. In the same year,
Speaker 3: it donated about a million dollars to the Federal Labor Party.
Speaker 3: In August last year, there is the funeral for John
Speaker 3: Seka's father, who himself was a construction worker. The Underworld
Speaker 3: figure Mick Gaddo, whose SECA often used as a kind
Speaker 3: of fixer or negotiator, publicly expresses his condolences to setcam Now.
Speaker 3: On the other end of the spectrum of authority in Victoria,
Speaker 3: just center Alan, the Premier before becoming Premier, was infrastructure Minister.
Speaker 3: She's married to a former CFMEU union boss. Pays her
Speaker 3: fealty and attends the funeral. So I think in just
Speaker 3: that one day, this funeral, you have this neat demonstration
Speaker 3: of Setka's influence. But the Victorian Labor Government's not wanted
Speaker 3: the cfmeu's obstruction. It has not wanted its ambitions thwarted
Speaker 3: by industrial action, and as a result, the Labor Party
Speaker 3: has kind of turned a blind eye.
Speaker 9: I have zero tolerance for this sort of behavior. I've
Speaker 9: asked the Labor Party's National Executive to move to immediately
Speaker 9: suspend the construction division from the Victorian Labor Party.
Speaker 3: There's this kind of familiar pattern that occurs following public
Speaker 3: scandal and its politicians express fox shock and condemnation and surprise.
Speaker 3: But the possibility of deniability is utterly, utterly implausible.
Speaker 1: Politically, of course, this is manner from heaven for the
Speaker 1: federal opposition, in particular, how are they capitalizing the Labour's
Speaker 1: close historical ties to the CFMAU and what are they
Speaker 1: saying about how this looks for Labor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's unsurprisingly an amount of political theater at the moment.
Speaker 2: That's sad.
Speaker 3: The Opposition have very substantial legitimate criticism of the Labor Party.
Speaker 3: The Labor Party's affinity with the CFMU is well established.
Speaker 3: The bit of political theater that is a little frustrating
Speaker 3: is the status of the ABCC, the Australian Building and
Speaker 3: Construction Commission, which the Albanese government dissolved last year, and
Speaker 3: it was conceived as a kind of watchdog of the
Speaker 3: construction industry. Now the Liberal Party at the moment are
Speaker 3: saying that the dissolution of the ABCC is proof of
Speaker 3: Labour's indifference to corruption in the industry. The problem with
Speaker 3: that argument is that the ABCC did exist for a
Speaker 3: number of years during John Setka's twelve year reign, so
Speaker 3: I'm not quite sure what the ABCC was for, if
Speaker 3: not to investigate the allegations that have been added by
Speaker 3: nine in the past week.
Speaker 1: Again, it goes to the incredulity around how it took
Speaker 1: the Fourth of State to air these allegations. The work
Speaker 1: Place Relations Minister Tony Burkers said that there will be
Speaker 1: an independent investigation. How much confidence do you have in
Speaker 1: the integrity of that investigation and as chances of finding
Speaker 1: any wrongdoing?
Speaker 3: I think we might have some confidence now. And the
Speaker 3: reason I say that is a certain threshold has been
Speaker 3: crossed now, So I think there's been plausible deniability for
Speaker 3: a long time. There's been years of willful ignorance, but
Speaker 3: courtesy of the great reporting of the nine reporters, a
Speaker 3: public threshold has now been crossed, and I think coming
Speaker 3: with that is a public expectation of substantial intervention. So
Speaker 3: the independent administrator will be appointed, the Fair Work Commission
Speaker 3: will make an application to a court for that. There's
Speaker 3: certain kind of formal disavowals now from the Labor Party
Speaker 3: about the CFMU. So look, in short, I think we
Speaker 3: can have some confidence, but to reflect again the frustrated
Speaker 3: members who internally have been attempting to fight corrupt forces
Speaker 3: within their union. It shouldn't have taken this long, and
Speaker 3: it shouldn't have been wholly dependent upon journalists.
Speaker 1: And so Marty, finally, what does this all mean for
Speaker 1: the future of the CFMEU itself and its workers. Do
Speaker 1: you think it will survive? And what are the ramifications
Speaker 1: for the building industry in particular if it doesn't.
Speaker 3: Well, Tony Bok has now ruled out dear registration, which
Speaker 3: is a great relief to many. But as I said before,
Speaker 3: I've been having lengthy conversations with a large number of officials,
Speaker 3: and I often ask them about reform, what it might
Speaker 3: look like, how likely it might be, and there's great
Speaker 3: uncertainty about that. There's a mix of optimism and pessimism.
Speaker 3: This is a union, certainly in Victoria, that has been
Speaker 3: assiduously stacked with loyalists. So if you remove them, you're
Speaker 3: removing most people. There's also great fear of retribution. There's
Speaker 3: some pretty serious people involved in these allegations, and so
Speaker 3: that kind of fear helps retard reform. Some union officials say,
Speaker 3: so there's enormous uncertainty at the moment. I'll tell you
Speaker 3: what one official told me yesterday.
Speaker 2: It's that it's at best two or three years away.
Speaker 3: That is the proper reformation of this union, such as
Speaker 3: its degradation at the moment.
Speaker 2: Martin, thank you for your time. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Also in the use today, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wongs
Speaker 1: is Israel's operation in Gaza quote must stop after some
Speaker 1: of the fierce bombardments in months have killed hundreds of civilians.
Speaker 1: In a series of posts to w X, Wong reiterated
Speaker 1: Australia support for an immediate cease fire and condemned operations,
Speaker 1: including many near schools. UNRWA says that seventy percent of
Speaker 1: his schools have been bombed, with around ninety five percent
Speaker 1: of those being used as displacement shelters at the time
Speaker 1: of their attack, and the nervous JD Vance took the
Speaker 1: stage the Republican National Convention for the first time as
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's running mate, in front of a crowd of
Speaker 1: supporters sporting ear bandages in a tribute to Trump. It
Speaker 1: comes as President Joe Biden test positive for COVID a
Speaker 1: mid reports from both New York Times and CNN that
Speaker 1: he has become more receptive to calls to drop out
Speaker 1: of the race. Seven Am is a daily show from
Speaker 1: Schwartz Media and The Saturday Paper. He is produced by
Speaker 1: Kara Jensen, McKinnon, Shane Anderson, Zolton, Fecho and Zia and Tangarral.
Speaker 1: A senior producer is quest Endgate. A technical producer is
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Speaker 1: Jensen is an editor in chief. Mixing by Travis Evans,
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Speaker 1: Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Bordeo. I'm Daniel James.
Speaker 1: This is seven AM. See you next week.