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Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,

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Speaker 1: now it makes sense.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday,

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Speaker 2: the seventeenth of July.

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Speaker 1: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.

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Speaker 2: One of Australia's biggest unions, the Construction, Forestry and Maritime

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Speaker 2: Employees Union, otherwise known as the CFMEU, is being investigated

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Speaker 2: for alleged ties to criminal gangs and VIKI groups. In

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Speaker 2: the wake of a nine Network investigation.

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Speaker 1: Well, the CFMAU has placed its Victorian branch into administration.

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Speaker 2: Reports that union has been infiltrated by organized crime.

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Speaker 1: What this project does is utterly exposed the rock that

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Speaker 1: has infected the construction industry.

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Speaker 2: The controversial head of the union's Victorian wing, John Setka,

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Speaker 2: stepped down last week before the criminal allegations had even surfaced.

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Speaker 2: The union's Victorian branch has since gone into administration and

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Speaker 2: handed control to the national body. In today's deep dive,

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Speaker 2: we're going to explain everything I just said and more,

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Speaker 2: including what the CFMEU actually is, why these allegations are

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Speaker 2: so serious, and what it means for the Labor Party.

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Speaker 2: But first, Sam, what's making news today?

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Speaker 1: Former US President Donald Trump has confirmed. His presidential running

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Speaker 1: mate will be thirty nine year old Ohio Senator JD. Vance.

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Speaker 1: The former US Marine Corps and current lawyer, was previously

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Speaker 1: a Trump critic, but has in recent years become a

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Speaker 1: strong supporter of the former president. The announcement came during

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Speaker 1: the Republican National Convention, which was Trump's first public appearance

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Speaker 1: after an attempted assassination over the weekend.

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Speaker 2: Plans for the world's longest undersea energy cable sending solar

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Speaker 2: energy from Australia to Singapore, have now been approved. The

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Speaker 2: Australia Asia Powerlink project will channel Darwin's Sunlight to transmit

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Speaker 2: solar energy directly to Singapore. Australian based renewable energy company

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Speaker 2: sun cables that it will put Australia at the forefront

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Speaker 2: of the global shift to renewable energy.

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Speaker 1: Viral loungewear brand Udi has been ordered to pay more

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Speaker 1: than one hundred thousand dollars in fines after allegedly failing

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Speaker 1: to comply with mandatory product safety standards. The Australian Competition

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Speaker 1: and Consumer Commission, or the AHRIBLEC, issued the company with

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Speaker 1: six different infringement notices after it didn't include high fire

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Speaker 1: danger warning labels on its Kid's Beach Udy. More than

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Speaker 1: two four hundred units of the products were sold between

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Speaker 1: September of twenty twenty two and July of twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 1: UDI recalled the products at the time, acknowledging they did

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Speaker 1: not comply with industry standards.

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Speaker 2: And today's good news. Yosemite toads have been returned to

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Speaker 2: Yosemite National Park after being removed from their natural habitat

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Speaker 2: for more than ten years. The species were labeled endangered

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Speaker 2: after twenty thirteen wildfires burned through more the seventy seven

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Speaker 2: thousand acres in the park. The San Francisco Zoo Conservation

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Speaker 2: Team have been leading the project, raising hundreds of amphibians

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Speaker 2: from tadpoles two adults to reintroduce them to their natural habitat.

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Speaker 2: One of the country's biggest unions is being investigated for

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Speaker 2: alleged ties to criminal gangs and bikey groups. As you

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Speaker 2: would have heard in the introduction, we are talking here

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Speaker 2: about the CFMEU, which is the Construction, Forestry and Maritime

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Speaker 2: Employees Union.

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Speaker 1: And I feel like the gut instinct for a lot

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Speaker 1: of people will be well, I'm not working in those

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Speaker 1: sectors I might want to tap out of this story,

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Speaker 1: but it's really important. Talk me through why it is

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Speaker 1: such an important story.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think to understand why it's an important story,

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Speaker 2: we need to unpack a bit about who and what

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Speaker 2: the CFMEU actually is. So, as I said, the CFMEU

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Speaker 2: is one of Australia's largest unions. And when I say large,

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Speaker 2: I'm talking here about more than one hundred and fifteen

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Speaker 2: thousand men.

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Speaker 1: Nationally, right, So a full MCG that is your.

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Speaker 2: Metric then, yes, a full MCG. And to take a

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Speaker 2: step back even further, if you're not familiar with what

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Speaker 2: a union is, a union is basically just a body

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Speaker 2: that represents the interests of workers in particular industries or occupations.

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Speaker 2: And so when we're talking about the CFMEU, this particular union,

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Speaker 2: it's representing workers across the fields of construction, manufacturing and shipping.

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Speaker 2: So think about it covering jobs like builders or crane

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Speaker 2: operators or port workers. Since it was first set up

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Speaker 2: as the Building Workers Industrial Union of Australia in nineteen

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Speaker 2: sixty two, so it's a fairly old union. The CFMEU

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Speaker 2: has over time advocated for improving wages and conditions for

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Speaker 2: its members.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so this is a really large union, lots of members,

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Speaker 1: and that's where they get part of their influence from.

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Speaker 1: But another part of their influence is from their connection

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Speaker 1: to the Labor Party.

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Speaker 2: Right exactly. So if we think of why this story

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Speaker 2: is important, the first is the sheer number of of

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Speaker 2: members that CFMEU has, making it one of the biggest

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Speaker 2: unions in the country. But the second is because of

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Speaker 2: the relationship between the CFMEU and the Labor Party. Now,

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Speaker 2: the Victorian CFMU is a registered member of the state

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Speaker 2: branch of the Labor Party, and this basically means that

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Speaker 2: it regularly donates to the Labor Party to the tune

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Speaker 2: of some three million dollars during the last federal election.

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Speaker 2: That's a lot of money.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a big one.

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Speaker 2: And it also means that the CFMU has a certain

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Speaker 2: degree of power when it comes to the Labor Party. So,

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Speaker 2: especially when we're talking about Victoria, there is this kind

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Speaker 2: of intrinsic connection between the two.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So that sets a bit of the context for

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Speaker 1: why allegations uncovered this week might have been significant. What

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Speaker 1: were the allegations themselves.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So, as I said a bit earlier, all of

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Speaker 2: these allegations were uncovered by the nine network, and I

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Speaker 2: really would encourage you to read or to watch the

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Speaker 2: joint Sydney Morning Herald Age and sixty Minutes investigation. It

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Speaker 2: was led by an incredible journalist, Nickmickins, who is responsible

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Speaker 2: for so many groundbreaking investigations in this country. And I

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Speaker 2: do think that you should go to the source material

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Speaker 2: and we'll throw that in today's show notes. But if

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Speaker 2: you're short for time, I'll give you the TLDR, which

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Speaker 2: is essentially that the investigation uncovered alleged links between criminal

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Speaker 2: figures and the CFMEU. This included bikey gangs and convicted

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Speaker 2: criminals being appointed as senior union delegates and then engaging

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Speaker 2: in alleged bribery. It calls this alleged connection between underworld

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Speaker 2: figures and the CFMEU a cancer on the union. Now.

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Speaker 2: Nine reported that the CFMEU had allowed criminal figures to

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Speaker 2: work on large government funded projects, and of course if

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Speaker 2: it's government funded, then that's taxpayer money. And so you

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Speaker 2: see why this is becoming such a big problem, and

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Speaker 2: that some of those projects included Victoria's one hundred billion

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Speaker 2: dollar Big Build road and rail infrastructure program and anyone

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Speaker 2: who is listening from Victoria would be well acquainted with

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Speaker 2: that program. I read through the reports from Nick mackenzie

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Speaker 2: and his colleagues, and one of the examples that they

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Speaker 2: highlighted in the report, and again this is an allegation

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Speaker 2: hasn't been tested. They alleged that a convicted criminal and

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Speaker 2: BIKI figure who was appointed as a CFMEU safety official

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Speaker 2: and was said to be earning some two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars a year, actually used a car that

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Speaker 2: was meant to be for worker safety checks to instead

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Speaker 2: engage in BIKI gang activities. So that's just one example,

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Speaker 2: but there they are trying to draw a direct link

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Speaker 2: between a CFMEU official, a government project, and then this underworld.

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Speaker 1: So NIAM released this investigation with some pretty serious allegations

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Speaker 1: against the conduct of the CFMU, especially when it involves

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Speaker 1: taxpayer money. The other part of this story that I

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Speaker 1: heard was the influence of the Victorian leader of the

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Speaker 1: CFMU right exactly.

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Speaker 2: So some of the other allegations actually relate directly to

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Speaker 2: the head of or now the former head of the

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Speaker 2: Victorian CFMEU. His name is John Secca. Some listeners might

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Speaker 2: be familiar with him. He is a fairly controversial figure.

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Speaker 2: He's been in the headlines a lot over the last

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Speaker 2: couple of years. To give you a bit of a

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Speaker 2: lay of the land with John Setka, and this is

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Speaker 2: just important to understanding these allegations. He became the Victorian

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Speaker 2: CFMAU State secretary back in twenty twelve. He's been in

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Speaker 2: the long time. Then in twenty nineteen he was convicted

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Speaker 2: of harassing his ex wife. That might have been the

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Speaker 2: time that you first started to hear about him. Then

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Speaker 2: in the same year he resigned from the Labor Party.

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Speaker 2: That was following pressure from then opposition leader but now

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Speaker 2: of course Prime Minister Anthony Alberezi over comments SECA was

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Speaker 2: believed to have made about domestic violence prevention campaigner Rosie Batty.

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Speaker 2: Now John Secca denied the remarks, but he still resigned

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Speaker 2: from the Labor Party before essentially being pushed as such.

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Speaker 2: And so when it comes to this latest investigation, nine

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Speaker 2: is alleging that Setka engaged in abusive behavior and that

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Speaker 2: he also maintained these personal clout relationships with underworld figures directly,

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Speaker 2: and I mean they had a number of messages at

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Speaker 2: text messages, photos and the like to what they say

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Speaker 2: demonstrate a relationship, a direct relationship between these figures and

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Speaker 2: John Setka in his capacity as the head of the

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Speaker 2: Victorian CFMAU.

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Speaker 1: And I'm interested to hear how he responded to these allegations.

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Speaker 1: I heard you say former leader. Now, so that's obviously

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Speaker 1: a bit of a giveaway.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So he actually got ahead of the allegations.

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Speaker 2: He resigned before nine had published its investigations. So he

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Speaker 2: resigned as the Victorian Branch secretary last Friday. And when

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Speaker 2: he did resign, he said that it was because he

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Speaker 2: was being repeatedly questioned about wrongdoing. He didn't accept those accusations,

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Speaker 2: he called them ongoing false allegations, but nonetheless he did resign.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so the leader of the Victorian branch of the

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Speaker 1: CFMU has resigned. But the allegations are actually angled more

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Speaker 1: at the CFMU than just the leader itself.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, they're kind of intrinsically linked. But yes,

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Speaker 2: it does show or at least try to demonstrate a

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Speaker 2: bigger problem within the CFMAU than more than just John set.

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Speaker 1: Cut, and those problems would be still there, exactly.

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Speaker 2: And so there was some kind of very fast moving

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Speaker 2: developments after this nine investigation came out. So since that

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Speaker 2: investigation came out, the CFME US Victorian branch has actually

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Speaker 2: gone into administration and has handed control to the National Secretary,

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Speaker 2: who will investigate any credible allegations of wrongdoing. So basically

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Speaker 2: there's now this vacuum of power and decision making and

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Speaker 2: there is this investigation that is being done into what

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Speaker 2: has happened here.

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Speaker 1: And just quickly going into administration that means that they've

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Speaker 1: run out of money, they can't pay their staff, and

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Speaker 1: so they've kind of had to seed control to the

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Speaker 1: national body exactly.

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Speaker 2: So that's what's happened in Victoria, and given that that's

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Speaker 2: the state where most of these allegations are based, we

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Speaker 2: have kind of seen this snowball effect when it comes

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Speaker 2: to the Victorian government as well. So it's not just

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Speaker 2: contained to a kind of union issue, but because of

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Speaker 2: the reasons that I spoke about before of the Labor

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Speaker 2: Party and the CFMU being linked, it has now also

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Speaker 2: become a political problem. So since those allegations first surfaced,

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Speaker 2: we've heard from Victorian Premier just Into Alan, who has

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Speaker 2: now asked for the Labor Party to cut some of

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Speaker 2: its ties to the CFMEU so to distance one from

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Speaker 2: the other, and that includes removing the Victorian branch as

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Speaker 2: a party member and halting political donations. You'll remember I

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Speaker 2: said that the CFME you donated three million dollars, so

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Speaker 2: that's a fairly big chunk of donations that, if this

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Speaker 2: actually happens, will now not go ahead. To demonstrate the

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Speaker 2: relationship between the CFMU and the Victorian government. I found

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Speaker 2: this interesting tibit in the nine article, which was that

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Speaker 2: just into Alan before she was premier, but she was

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Speaker 2: still a minister in the Dan Andrews government. She actually

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Speaker 2: attended John Setka's father's funeral last year, and I mean,

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Speaker 2: I don't think that too much can be read into it,

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Speaker 2: but I think that it does demonstrate that there was

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Speaker 2: this relayationship, and therefore I guess it goes to show

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Speaker 2: how monumental what is happening right now between these two

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Speaker 2: bodies actually is. I'll read you a bit from Justinta

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Speaker 2: Allen's statement from earlier this week. She's said, and I quote,

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Speaker 2: unions protect workers, but what we've seen isn't unionism. It's

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Speaker 2: self interested thuggery at its worst. I express my personal

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Speaker 2: and deep felt disgusted at these activities and the people

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Speaker 2: who perpetuated them. This rotten culture must be pulled out

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Speaker 2: by its roots. Very strong words, extremely strong words. And

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Speaker 2: apart from those words, as I said, she's called for

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Speaker 2: this kind of separation between her party and the union,

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Speaker 2: and she's also asked for the state's anti corruption body

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Speaker 2: to investigate the allegations. She did say, though, in that statement,

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Speaker 2: that the conduct of unions is regulated under federal not

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Speaker 2: state laws, so passed a bit of the buck upwards

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Speaker 2: to the Albanesi government.

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Speaker 1: There always a smart move if there's a kind of

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Speaker 1: hairy topic like this one. Now the federal governments involved.

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Speaker 1: Have we heard from the LA government?

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Speaker 2: Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke said that he had requested

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Speaker 2: advice on the next steps that he could take to

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Speaker 2: address the allegations against the CFMEU. He told Insiders, which

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Speaker 2: is an ABC program on Sunday, that the reports were

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Speaker 2: completely unacceptable and he didn't rule out deregistering the union.

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Speaker 2: Then from the Prime Minister we had again pretty strong condemnation.

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Speaker 2: Anthony Alberezi said in an interview this week that he

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Speaker 2: has a very clear message for the CFMEU, which is

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Speaker 2: that they need to clean up their act. He said,

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Speaker 2: I have zero tolerance for it. The revelations that have

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Speaker 2: been made in recent days need to be condemned in

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Speaker 2: the strongest possible terms.

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Speaker 1: So it's really become kind of a political hot topic

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Speaker 1: as to what the future of the CFMU really looks

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Speaker 1: like it is.

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Speaker 2: And I just want to reiterate how significant this is.

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Speaker 2: For example, Foreign Minister Pennywong, she worked for the CFMEU

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Speaker 2: early in her career. Like these politicians, many of whom

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Speaker 2: have come through the unions, they need to now create

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Speaker 2: a precedent or kind of a playbook for what happens

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Speaker 2: moving forward and how they're going to regulate this relationship

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Speaker 2: with the unions.

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Speaker 1: And I imagine the Federal Opposition has jumped on this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So one of the particularities of our political system,

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Speaker 2: of course is that the unions don't have links to

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Speaker 2: the coalition and so they can kind of stand back and,

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Speaker 2: as you said, criticize. So we had shadow industrial relations.

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Speaker 2: Minister Michaea Cash saying the depth of criminal infiltration is

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Speaker 2: extremely disturbing. She called for the now dissolved construction Regulator

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Speaker 2: it's called the Australian Building and Construction Commission to be

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Speaker 2: reinstated now. The current government actually abolished that commission back

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three, and Cash blamed that decision for

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Speaker 2: basically giving what she said was SECA and his allies

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Speaker 2: effective control of the construction sector.

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Speaker 1: A very interesting story that kind of reveals a little

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Speaker 1: bit more of how politics in Australia can operate.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate you saying it's an interesting story, because I

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Speaker 2: don't know if everyone agreed, but I think it's a

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Speaker 2: really important story. Yes, I think that it's really important

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Speaker 2: for setting the standard and as I said, kind of

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Speaker 2: establishing how this relationship works. We've got labor government in

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Speaker 2: every single state and territory and federally of course, except

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Speaker 2: in Tasmania. And I think that this is going to

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Speaker 2: be a really really important story moving forward, and we'll

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Speaker 2: have to keep an eye on Victoria and see what

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Speaker 2: happens there.

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Speaker 1: I heard somebody say this week that it's a story

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Speaker 1: about how the sausage is made, and I think that's

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Speaker 1: always a worthy podcast. Thanks so much for that, Zara,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for joining us on the Daily OS today.

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Speaker 1: If you learn something from today's episode, i'd love you

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Speaker 1: to hit subscribe if you're listening in whatever podcast app,

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Speaker 1: It really sends a signal to all of these people

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Speaker 1: our podcasts every day, and that means the world to us.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back again tomorrow. Until then, have a great day.

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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bunjelung Kalkudin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestrate

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Speaker 1: island and nations. We pay our respects to the first

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Speaker 1: peoples of these countries, both past and present.