Victorian police and the state's corruption watchdog have been called to investigate allegations of corruption, intimidation, and criminal infiltration within the CFMEU. The union's Victorian division has been placed into administration by the national office. State Political Reporter Richard Willingham has the details from Melbourne.
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00:00Well, yes, this is a big damaging story, obviously, for the CFMU, but it's also a big risk for
00:07the Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allen.
00:09What are these allegations that have seen aired in the nine newspapers and on 60 Minutes
00:13have focused on the CFMU infiltrating and using its power on these big building sites,
00:19these big construction sites, and many of them are funded by the Victorian Government.
00:23These are big signature projects which have been part of the success of the Allen and
00:26Andrews Government here in Victoria, big freeways, other big projects.
00:31The Premier has not spoken until this morning about these allegations.
00:34We saw that John Secchia resigned on Friday amid this story.
00:38The Premier says that there is no place for this sort of behaviour.
00:41She says that she's asked the National Executive, the Labor Party, to remove the CFMU from the
00:45Victorian Division.
00:47She's also written to Victoria Police and the state's independent, broad-based anti-corruption
00:51commission, IBAC, to take a look at these allegations, and she said, while it's not
00:56actually Victoria's role as a state government to look at EBAs, she wants to work hand-in-glove
01:00with the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and his team to examine some of the EBAs on
01:05these big construction sites that have been struck with the CFMU to see if they can be
01:11kept and whether there's some problems with those.
01:13She said she's not afraid to work with the Federal Government to rip these up.
01:17But there is some cause for concern for the Premier because some of these allegations
01:22about poor behaviour by the CFMU on Victorian building sites has been raised before.
01:27There was letters reported on last year raising concerns about intimidation that was sent
01:32to her office when she was Deputy Premier.
01:34She was the Minister for Transport Infrastructure in charge of the big build.
01:38She said she hasn't seen those letters today.
01:40She went during her press conference.
01:41She spoke a short time ago.
01:43Let's have a very quick listen.
01:45I want to be absolutely clear.
01:48What we have seen here in recent days isn't unionism, it's thuggish, unacceptable behaviour
01:55at its worst that I have zero tolerance for and has absolutely no place on any Victorian
02:02work site.
02:03I also want to express my deep disgust at the people who have behaved in this way, at
02:10their activities.
02:11Again, I have zero tolerance for this sort of behaviour.
02:15And this is a rotten culture that must be pulled out by its roots.
02:20And Richard, what's been the response from the union leaders?
02:23Well, this morning the CFMU held an emergency meeting and the national executive of that
02:29union has placed the Victorian branch, where these allegations are mostly centred, into
02:34administration.
02:36The CFMU Federal Secretary, Zach Smith, has also said there will be an independent investigation
02:42set up into these allegations.
02:43And he did, in some interviews, he did make the point that these are just allegations
02:47and people are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
02:50But he wanted them tested independently before rushing to any judgement.
02:53But he says that they have placed them into administration as a result and they'll be
02:57running the show from there.
02:59And the ACTU Secretary, Sally McManus, also spoke this morning and she said there is – doesn't
03:05think deregistering the CFMU is the right way to go.
03:08But she does say that people who have allegations against them should be stood down.
03:12Let's have a listen to the pair.
03:14Where appropriate, we will look at asking officials to step down that are facing allegations.
03:22However, I want to be clear at this stage, we are still in the process of standing up
03:29the process, standing up its terms of reference and collating all allegations.
03:35There's no place, no place whatsoever for criminal activity in unions.
03:43As a union movement, we completely oppose this.
03:46We will resist it and we will stand up against it.
03:50We will not tolerate anyone using a union for criminal activities.
03:55Such people should face the full force of the law.
04:01So you hear there from two prominent union leaders.
04:03This story looks like it's got a long way to run.
04:05There's going to be political pressure on the Premier in this state and surely in other
04:09states in New South Wales too and the Prime Minister.
04:12This is a Labor-linked union, although John Setka has been kicked out.
04:16So this pressure will continue and I think the questions we ask, what has taken it so
04:19long for people – these allegations to sort of surface, given – especially talk around
04:24Victoria as these sort of rumours have swirled for a long time.
04:28And the questions, particularly I think for the Victorian Government, is what's taken
04:31it so long to act on this.
04:33I think we'll be watching this space for some time to come.