Government keeps faith in CFMEU administration despite Gatto meeting

4 days ago 4

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The CFMEU administration retains the government’s backing despite one its key figures apologising for directing an employee to meet with underworld figure Mick Gatto in a Melbourne park.

This masthead revealed on Friday morning that government-backed Victorian CFMEU chief Zach Smith had directed a subordinate to secretly meet underworld identity Mick Gatto, sparking accusations from the opposition that the effort to clean up the union had lost public trust.

CFMEU Victorian chief Zach Smith is one of the few surviving figures from the union’s elected leadership to retain a senior post under the administration.

The meeting was called to discuss a dispute involving a construction company working for the Melbourne Airport operator.

Minister for Industrial Relations Amanda Rishworth said that criminality and violence had “zero place” in the construction industry and said the appointment of officers in the union was a matter for the administrator.

“The government has full confidence in the administration, as the strongest available action to stamp out corruption, criminality and violence in the construction industry,” Rishworth said in a statement to this masthead. “Changing deeply rooted cultural problems takes time and we are committed to the Administration remaining in place until the job is done.”

Smith, one of the few senior CFMEU figures from the previous leadership to remain in a top role under administrator Mark Irving, apologised on Thursday for directing a union employee to meet with Gatto on September 12.

Irving has ordered an investigation into the meeting and published a new set of rules for the union to limit its contact with industrial fixers such as Gatto. There is no suggestion Gatto, who did not respond to questions from this masthead about the meeting, is guilty of any offence and he has previously denied all wrongdoing in his dealings in the construction industry.

Opposition industrial relations spokesperson Tim Wilson said public trust in Rishworth “has collapsed”.

“When Anthony Albanese’s anointed golden boy is caught facilitating meetings with underworld figures, trust in their process to clean up CFMEU corruption collapses,” Wilson said in a statement.

“The scale of CFMEU cartel kickbacks, corruption and violence is extensive, and the costs are passed on through rising prices to Australians,” Wilson said.

“When corruption is endemic in a union then appointing an administrator is like changing the logo on the letterhead of a sternly worded letter to a union official warning them not to facilitate meetings with underworld figures, and that’s been exposed today”.

Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles speaking from Melbourne on Friday morning.

Minister for Skills and Training Andrew Giles said the reports were concerning. He said the government had already acted to root out criminality in the construction industry by tipping the CFMEU into administration.

“We recognise as a government that there is a ... big bit of cultural work that is required in the building and construction industry,” Giles said on Friday.