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“The only reason these issues are coming to light is because of the investigations that the administrator is conducting,” Rishworth said.
“We have taken the strongest possible action by putting the union into administration, and the administrator is taking serious and concrete steps to clean up the union and the industry. Serious reform of this kind takes time, and we are committed to the administration until the job is done.”
She argued that the Liberals had no credibility when it came to the CFMEU.
“The corruption, criminality and violence we see embedded in the construction industry all flourished under the watch of their discredited [Australian Building and Construction Commission],” she said.
The ABCC was established after a royal commission recommended that an independent industry regulator be established because of the lawlessness in the construction industry, more than 20 years ago. The body has twice been abolished by Labor, most recently in 2023, which left oversight of the industry with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
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CFMEU Victorian state head Zach Smith apologised earlier this month for directing a union organiser to attend a discreet meeting with Gatto, an underworld identity and industrial fixer, to discuss a construction project. Administrator Mark Irving counselled Smith and instituted a new policy to effectively bar future contact with fixers such as Gatto.
Irving said in a statement that he was determined to continue his work cleaning out the union. Progress varied by state, he said, depending on the “differing types of connection between industry and organised crime.”
“Much important work remains to be done. This will take considerable time, as is reflected in the governing statutory timeframes. The success of the work done will be properly judged over time.
“We continue to call on the industry, regulators and governments to assist in the broader challenge of ridding the construction industry of corruption, and for employers to stand up and stop the practice of enabling organised crime,” Irving said.
He said he would act against any unionist or employer where there was credible evidence they had engaged in corruption.
The home of this masthead’s investigative reporter Nick McKenzie, who has led reporting on the CFMEU and construction industry, was targeted earlier this month in what authorities suspect was an attempt to intimidate or silence the journalist.
McKenzie has been reporting on the industry intensively for 18 months, winning the nation’s highest journalism honour, the Gold Walkley, for his work. He has also exposed war crimes and corruption in politics and business.
The alleged offender has not yet been identified, and this masthead is not suggesting who may be responsible.
Independent MP Allegra Spender was part of a group of crossbenchers who wrote to the prime minister in July last year calling for an independent regulator and said it was clear that the administrator needed more support.
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“You can’t just deal with this as business as usual with the administrator because, evidently, [the problem] goes too deep,” Spender said.
She said her letter to Albanese called for a new oversight body and legislative framework to help introduce accountability and cultural change to the sector. She called on the government to set aside the politics of opposing the Coalition-established construction commission and introduce an effective solution.
“It’s clear that the ABCC wasn’t perfect, and there was corruption and problems under its watch. But it is also clear that this isn’t fixing it either. This is the chance for Labor to say, let’s make something that we believe is going to fix it, rather than pretend that there’s nothing to see here.”
The Queensland government launched a commission of inquiry into the CFMEU and misconduct in the construction industry in July.
Labor passed new laws last year to take control of the union, and the Fair Work Commission appointed Irving, who said at the time that the corruption was so entrenched that cleaning up the union was “going to be the hardest job of my life by a long shot”.
with Max Maddison.
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