Despite corruption crackdowns, Gatto still has his mitts deep in the CFMEU pie

For decades gangland figure Mick Gatto has lurked around the construction industry representing builders and developers while doing covert deals with senior CFMEU figures.

Typically, the quid pro quo was murky, but so close was the relationship between Gatto and disgraced former CFMEU Victoria leader John Setka that they called each other “brother” and in one text Gatto even told Setka, “I love ya”.

Mick Gatto (left) and then-CFMEU leader John Setka in 2018.Credit: AAP

The problems at the CFMEU revealed by this masthead’s Building Bad investigation went far beyond the close friendship between Setka and Gatto, and involved the exposure of widespread union links to organised crime and bikies.

But it’s a symbol of the rot that for so long gangland figure Gatto has had such a prominent role in the Victorian industry and enjoyed such good relations with senior CFMEU officials.

The Albanese government’s appointment 14 months ago of Mark Irving KC as the administrator of the CFMEU should have meant the immediate end of Gatto’s influence over the union.

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Instead, damning reporting by this masthead suggests little has changed, with the CFMEU’s Victorian leader Zach Smith telling a union organiser to meet Gatto in secret last month.

The purpose of the meeting was that Gatto reportedly demanded the CFMEU allow his client Maz Group to operate free of union pressure and requested future union concerns be channelled through Gatto.

If the administration of the CFMEU has a point it was to clear out the corrupt old guard and practices and to run the union for what should be its key role – representing building workers. Once that is done it can be returned to the democratic control of its members.

To describe Smith’s decision to agree to the clandestine meeting as a mistake is a gross understatement. There is no scenario where he should have encouraged the Gatto meeting.

Australia’s industrial relations system allows numerous formal and informal mechanisms to deal with disputes, in particular in the building industry. None require the involvement of gangland figures.

It’s a significant failure of both Smith and the Albanese government’s administration that 14 months on this could happen. It also directly cuts against administrator Mark Irving’s demands the union cease its clandestine dealings with figures such as Gatto.

There is little the CFMEU can do if builders want to pay Gatto to resolve disputes – that reflects on the builder or, depending on the context, is a question for the authorities.

Irving himself has said industrial fixers such as Gatto are often no more than “enforcers” who trade on “intimidation” and must be “stamped out”. If a union run by a federal government-appointed administrator still acts this way, what hope is there ever for a clean CFMEU? What is the point of the administration?

It goes without saying that fixers such as Gatto don’t exist to improve the working conditions or lives of building workers – in fact, their role is the opposite. They are hired by bosses to make union problems go away; often an assault on CFMEU members’ working conditions.

One example from 2020 highlights this point, when thugs bashed one of the CFMEU’s organisers on a Hawthorn East building site.

Instead of involving police, or a lengthy industrial campaign targeting the builder, the response within days was a secret meeting between Setka and Gatto.

Soon after, the problem went away with no justice for the organiser who was bashed, nor it seemed the underlying issues. Instead, the only change was that the CFMEU flag flew from a crane on site. It’s how business has been done for decades. And apparently still is.

Ben Schneiders is an investigative reporter who worked at The Age for nearly 20 years, an author, a multiple Walkley award winner and a four-time winner of the Industrial Relations reporting award.

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