The national secretary of an embattled construction union has remained defiant against a furious grilling by Today host Karl Stefanovic, who accused the union boss of “covering up” the organisation’s “alleged corruption”.
In a fiery exchange on Tuesday morning, Stefanovic asked Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) boss Zach Smith: “How long have you been covering up your union’s alleged corruption for?”
The organisation’s Victorian construction branch faces ongoing allegations of intimidation, union thuggery and employing bikies and people with organised crime links on government-funded construction sites, as revealed in an ongoing Nine media investigation.
The CFMEU’s former Victorian state secretary John Setka also resigned from his role on Friday; however, he denied the allegations, stating the “malicious attacks” did nothing but “harm the work this great union does for its members”.
Mr Smith, however, maintained the “union has covered nothing up” and said there was “no place for criminality in our union”.
He also said the CFMEU had placed its Victorian branch into administration and had appointed an independent investigator to test the claims.
However, Stefanovic returned fire and said: “So essentially you’re taking the ‘I know nothing‘ defence. It defies belief.”
Mr Smith then accused Stefanovic of “putting words into my mouth” and said the union needed to have processes that “affords people the presumption of innocence and procedural fairness”.
“That’s not an accurate reflection of what I said,” Mr Smith added.
Further explosive claims published by Nine media on Tuesday revealed both then Victorian deputy premier Jacinta Allan and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received letters detailing the CFMEU’s alleged violence and intimidation in 2022.
The claims made by an Indigenous labour-hire firm also detailed incidents of officials banning non-union affiliated firms from major state and federal construction projects.
Nine newspapers revealed Mr Albanese’s office did not respond to the letter; however, Ms Allan took a year to respond and deferred the allegations to the federal government.
Labor is now facing increasing pressure to end political donations from the CFMEU, with Ms Allan announcing a ban.
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the ALP executive would consider the move in a meeting scheduled for Wednesday as well as a further sanctions against the CFMEU.
The union has only been suspended from the ALP in Victoria, with South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas reportedly advocating for similar action in his state.
“That’s a matter for the party and obviously that will be considered in due course,” Mr Conroy said.
“What I’m focused on … is what can we do as a federal government to stamp out the sort of behaviour that’s been reported and that’s why (Workplace Relations Minister) Tony Burke has asked for options from his department and all options are on the table, up to and including deregistration of the union.”
Senior opposition frontbencher Simon Birmingham said the response from Mr Albanese and Mr Burke had been “far from believable” and called for the reinstatement of the controversial building watching.
“Concerns about the CFMEU have been around for a long, long time,” he told Sky News.
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“Now the Albanese government chose to get rid of the watchdog; they chose to ease up in terms of scrutiny of the CFMEU and Australians and are now paying a price in higher road costs and construction costs, higher building costs for our hospitals and schools, all of that flows through to higher housing costs
“And what have Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke been doing? Well up to now they’ve been letting them off the hook and making life easier for them and now they’re pretending they’re surprised about this behaviour.
“Well, it’s time for action, fast action, strong action from the Albanese government.”
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2024-07-16 00:56:15Z
CBMinQFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9maW5hbmNlL3dvcmsvYXQtd29yay9jZm1ldS1ib3NzLXphY2gtc21pdGgtZmFjZXMtZ3JpbGxpbmctZnJvbS10b2RheS1ob3N0LWthcmwtc3RlZmFub3ZpYy9uZXdzLXN0b3J5L2VmZDA2OGZhZmZhYTE2MjVkNmYyM2E2YTI4ZTdlN2Q10gEA
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