Victoria’s CFMEU branch was caught up in a cycle of “lawlessness” where violence was accepted while the union’s management lost control of it because of underworld connections, a leading anti-corruption expert says.
An interim report by Geoffrey Watson SC, a barrister appointed to investigate allegations against the CFMEU, was released by the union’s administrator on Monday.
Geoffrey Watson SC has released his interim findings in an investigation into the CFMEU.Credit: Rebecca Hallas
In the report Watson said his conclusions backed the revelations in the “Building Bad” investigation by The Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes of criminality and intimidation in the union’s NSW and Victorian branches.
Watson said while his investigation was incomplete, “the information I uncovered supported the accuracy of the allegations of criminal and corrupt conduct raised in the ‘Building Bad’ series”.
“Based on the information uncovered during my investigation, the Victorian Branch has been caught up in a cycle of lawlessness, where violence was an accepted part of the culture, and threats of violence were a substitute for reasoned negotiations,” Watson said in the report.
He cited one example where an organiser for the CFMEU’s Victorian branch introduced himself as someone who worked for the union and then threatened the owners of an Indigenous labour-hire firm.
The organiser told the owners, “I’ll f—ing take your soul and I’ll rip your f—ing head off” — an incident other union officials regarded as “unexceptional”, Watson said.
The barrister noted the Victorian branch of the CFMEU had moved to remove some bikies from their positions after the publication of the Building Bad series.
Anti-corruption expert unveils interim CFMEU findings
