When the Abbott government established the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, Labor and its union puppetmasters screamed blue murder. The Bruvvas and their obedient parliamentary wing did everything in their power to thwart the investigation.
A decade later and the ongoing scale of union corruption – with its tentacles reaching deep into the Labor party – shows that the union movement’s determination to avoid scrutiny certainly paid off. The stink of corruption in some of Australia’s biggest unions is as undeniable as it is pervasive.
The CFMEU assigned a senior Bandidos bikie enforcer to work as a union organiser on major Victorian government construction projects and to sit on the governing board of the John Setka-led union branch, a role he was allowed to keep even after he was charged over a violent assault.
Marty Albert, who is facing charges over a pub bashing in Geelong with two other senior Bandidos bikies last year, quit the CFMEU Victoria’s management committee on July 12.
By the strangest coincidence, that was literally the day before multiple news sources published the first of the bombshell investigative reports into the union and its infiltration by bikies and organised crime. By an even stranger coincidence, boss John Setka resigned on the same day.
Albert is the second CFMEU official with criminal links revealed to have sat on a CFMEU governing board, after this [the Age] reported site delegate Simon Gutierrez, who spent time in prison for drug dealing, is on the CFMEU NSW committee of management.
The revelation comes as the federal opposition prepares to move next week to initiate a Senate inquiry into the CFMEU and the consequences of its alleged misconduct on government-funded building and housing projects. The opposition also wants the inquiry to look into whether anti-racketeering laws similar to those used to combat organised crime in the United States are needed.
Good luck with all that with Labor in charge. The last thing they want is the dirt on their union pals dug up – and just how deep in the Labor party remains.
CFMEU officials remain on an influential Victorian ALP committee that preselects state and federal MPs, despite the party suspending the militant union and Premier Jacinta Allan calling in the anti-corruption watchdog to investigate allegations of misconduct and corruption on taxpayer-funded building sites […]
In Victoria, four CFMEU officials remain listed as members of the public office selection committee three weeks after the union’s links to bikies was exposed, plunging it into crisis.
Then there’s the involvement of criminals and the CFMEU in trousering lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts on Labor government projects in NSW and Victoria.
Another of Labor’s strongest supporters, the Health Services Union, is also embroiled in longstanding corruption allegations.
Two of Australia’s most prominent trade union figures, ex-CFMEU boss John Setka and the Victorian head of the Health Services Union, Diana Asmar, are facing a multi-agency investigation into allegations that more than $3 million of union money was paid to printing firms for non-existent or “ghost” services.
Asmar, a one-time Labor Party powerbroker who has sought credit for exposing corrupt former health union head Kathy Jackson, is now also separately facing questions over almost $200,000 of members’ funds she allegedly spent on work expenses, including Gold Class movie tickets, alcohol, meals and items from IKEA […]
The Asmar-controlled Victorian branch, known as the Health Workers Union, allegedly funnelled through the scheme almost $2.8 million in union dues paid by some of the nation’s lowest-paid healthcare workers.
It wouldn’t be the first time a union boss has ripped off some of the lowest-paid workers in order to feather their own nest and curry political favours.
No doubt a bright future in the ALP awaits.
