The Squiz 

Following days of corruption allegations against one of Australia’s largest unions – the CFMEU, which stands for Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union – Workplace Minister Tony Burke has ordered an independent administrator to take over. He’s also asked the Federal Police to investigate the claims made in a Nine Network investigation against several of the union’s state branches. Burke said yesterday that the reported behaviour of the CFMEU’s construction arm was “abhorrent” – but he stopped short of deregistering it, as the Coalition has been calling for. 

Pretend like I don’t know a lot about this…

There’s a lot to keep track of, but to cut to what’s happened in the last few days… On Friday, the high-profile/controversial John Setka quit as the CFMEU Victorian branch secretary (aka its leader) over what he said were “relentless stories written with multiple allegations, whether true or not, about this great union”. On Saturday, misconduct claims surfaced – the allegations focused on highly paid jobs being given to bikies and other organised criminals. And on Monday, the Victorian and South Australian branches were placed into administration by the union’s national leaders. Yesterday the Queensland branch was added to the list (paywall), and NSW Premier Chris Minns moved to cut ties between the NSW government and the CFMEU and vowed to reject its donations going forward. That might have been prompted by police vision of NSW branch secretary Darren Greenfield allegedly accepting a bribe in 2020… 

That’s a bit messy… 

Yep – and Minns is facing criticism for taking too long to act. And he’s not the only one… Yesterday, Coalition leader Peter Dutton called the Albanese Government’s handling of the situation “weak” and doubled down on calls for the union to be deregistered. “I think this is an issue that’s going to go on. It’s going to bedevil the government” Dutton said. That comes after reports that the PM – and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan – were tipped off to alleged misconduct within the CFMEU in 2022. Yesterday, Albanese said his government had acted “swiftly” in announcing “the action that is appropriate that will stamp out this corruption once and for all”. But he’s still facing questions around CFMEU donations to the Labor Party – which totalled about $1 million during the 2022 election campaign – and whether he’ll cut them off in future. Last night, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said they would…