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