00:00Coercion through violence, intimidation of public servants and misogyny within the ranks.
00:09Allegations laid bare in a scathing report.
00:12And now the Queensland Government has gone a step further.
00:15Today I can announce a commission of inquiry into the stranglehold and standover tactics of the CFMEU in Queensland
00:23and the protection racket that has allowed it to occur.
00:27The inquiry will delve further after this week's report, commissioned by the union's administrator,
00:32exposed allegations of bullying and harassment by union members.
00:37The line that I keep coming back to is that it only scratched the surface.
00:41The opposition has offered bipartisan support but wanted the state's Crime and Corruption Commission to investigate further.
00:48That process would have been faster and saved taxpayers millions of dollars.
00:53The LNP says it wants to pin down former Labor ministers on what they knew about the allegations while in power and what they did about it.
01:02This is Labor's Fitzgerald moment and people must be held accountable for enabling the actions of the CFMEU in the last ten years.
01:11It is ridiculous to suggest that we ignored it and we took the strongest possible action in putting them into administration.
01:20The report mentions a government minister was offered additional security after interactions with the CFMEU.
01:26Grace Grace has revealed it was her and that it happened after the union was put into administration last year.
01:34There were no threats to me, it was just a precautionary step.
01:38While Labor has questioned the need for an inquiry, the state government says it will give the commission the power to summon people and protect witnesses.
01:47It comes after the former CFMEU leadership declined to be interviewed as part of the previous report
01:53and the author noted that union officials were afflicted with widespread memory loss.
01:58They can't hide in the shadows, they can't continue the cover up.
02:02It is the most powerful tool we have.
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