Key Points
- There have been reports of criminal misconduct and organised crime links within the CFMEU's construction division.
- An independent administrator is set to be appointed — a process that will be undertaken by Fair Work Australia.
- Opposition leader Peter Dutton has called it the "weakest possible response".
Australia's peak union body has joined federal Labor in suspending one of the nation's biggest unions, as the Opposition accused the federal government of a "nonsense" response to the corruption allegations it faces.
The federal government announced on Wednesday that it had ordered the Fair Work Commission to appoint an independent administrator to take control of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) construction division. This arm of , detailed in a series of recent reports by the Nine Network.
The CFMEU comprises three divisions: construction and general, manufacturing, and maritime.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday that the CFMEU would also be suspended from the federal Labor Party. Albanese said if the union challenged that, his government was prepared to move legislation to ensure cooperation.
His comments came on the same day Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus announced following a meeting of the peak union body's executive that it would also suspend the construction and general division of the CFMEU.
McManus said the suspension would remain in place until that arm of the union was "in a position to demonstrate to us that they are a well functioning, clean union, free of any criminal elements".
McManus — who when appearing on the ABC's 7.30 program on Tuesday denied she knew of alleged criminal elements within the CFMEU — also urged the CFMEU leaders to "support ... and cooperate" with the independent external administration.
"This is the very best way building workers can get to a situation where we can be confident that their union is free of criminal elements and free of any corruption," she told reporters on Wednesday.
The Nine Network's reports focused on the Victorian branch of the union.
After 12 years as the state secretary, ahead of the allegations being aired. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The allegations have been referred to the Australian Federal Police, and the Fair Work Ombudsman will review all enterprise agreements made by the Victorian branch of the construction division.
The government had the chance to deregister the union, as former prime minister Bob Hawke did with the Builders Labourers Federation in 1986.
But Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said that's no longer the best option.
"When Bob Hawke took the action of deregistration, that was the toughest action you could take to clean up an organisation," Burke said.
"The way industrial relations works under the Fair Work Act means that the toughest action that can be taken is to appoint an administrator."
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says allegations of criminal elements in the CFMEU are "absolutely abhorrent". Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
"That's like going into one of the bikie organisations and the police saying let's just change out the leadership here and put in an administrator and somehow the activities of the bikies will correct itself, it's complete nonsense," he said.
Burke said such a move would be "a gift to the worst elements".
"If we simply went down the deregistration path, we would have an organisation still capable of bargaining and doing the entire business model we've been seeing reported over recent days with no layer of regulation or additional oversight that applies to registered organisations," he said.
"I have no intention of going down that path."
Burke described the alleged misconduct within the union as "abhorrent" and "intolerable".
"The number one job of any union is to look after its members ... the reported behaviour for the construction division of the CFMEU is the exact opposite of that obligation."
The CFMEU's construction division has been suspended from the Victorian and NSW Labor parties.
Queensland has not expelled the union from the Labor Party but Premier Steven Miles has promised to assist the federal government through the administration process.
The CFMEU national office has placed its Victorian and South Australian branches into administration and assumed control of them.
It says the allegations of wrongdoing will be subject to an investigation led by a "leading legal figure".
With reporting by Rania Yallop, Sara Tomevska and the Australian Associated Press.
