Canberra Liberals: ACT Labor must withdraw from CFMEU

Labor premiers in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia have pledged to withdraw their parties’ membership of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and stop accepting donations as police investigate allegations of corrupt behaviour, criminal infiltration and links to biker gangs following the revelations in Victoria.

Will Australian Capital Territory Premier Andrew Barr do the same as his Labor colleagues? Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee is adamant he must do so to reassure the public of her government’s integrity.

“It is incumbent on Andrew Barr to come clean, be open, show leadership and reassure the people of Canberra that he is confident that the serious problems occurring in the Victorian branch of the CFMEU are not occurring in the ACT,” Ms Lee said.

“(Mr Barr should) show strength and say: ‘We do not accept this behaviour. And that is why, while serious investigations are underway across the country, we will terminate our membership of the CFMEU and will no longer accept donations.’ But the fact that Andrew Barr has not done so so far and has refused is telling.”

Neither the Chief Minister’s Office nor the Australian Capital Territory government responded to emails from Canberra daily looking for a comment.

However, Mr Barr said yesterday that the Labor Party in the Australian Capital Territory had not received any donations from the CFMEU branch in the state of Victoria and that the allegations did not relate to the CFMEU branch in the Australian Capital Territory.

But Lee said: “It is not enough for Andrew Barr to point the finger at other CFMEU branches in the states and say we are not accepting donations from them, so it is business as usual.”

She noted that South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas had suspended membership despite there being no evidence of criminal activity in the South Australian chapter.

The CFMEU, Ms Lee explained, is a member of the ACT Labor Party; it has had influence over the selection of party leaders and proposed policies, and it has donated to the party ($50,000 in the 2020 election). (In total, unions donated almost $90,760 to the party.)

“There is no doubt that the ACT branch of the CFMEU has an incredibly important and close relationship with ACT Labor,” Ms Lee said. “And so it behooves ACT Labor members to be very open about their affiliations and the influence that unions can have on them and their decisions. That is something that Canberrans should rightly expect.”

Most MPs in ACT Labor’s left-wing faction have links to the CFMEU and other unions. Michael Pettersson was formerly the CFMEU’s industrial representative and, Ms Lee claimed, made a statement saying that the union and the party were one.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Yvette Berry was a union organiser with the United Voice union (now part of the United Workers Union) for 15 years and her election campaign was supported by the CFMEU, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU).

Last year, the Integrity Commission heard allegations that Ms Berry’s office applied pressure to award the tender for the Campbell Primary School modernisation project to a company favoured by the CFMEU, rather than the preferred bidder who was not aligned with the union. Ms Berry has denied the allegations.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith was a member of the CPSU and the Australian Manufacturers Workers’ Union; her campaign was supported by the CFMEU, United Voice and the TWU.

Mick Gentleman worked for the Transport Workers Union.

Suzanne Orr was a shop steward and her campaign was supported by the CPSU, TWU, CFMEU and United Voice.

Ms Berry, Ms Stephen-Smith and Mr Pettersson attended a CFMEU rally against their own government in 2022.

The Canberra Liberals are also concerned about the CFMEU’s proposal to the ACT Labor Conference to grant “extraordinary and unprecedented additional powers” over ACT Government procurement and the appointment of senior civil servants.

“We are talking about a union that is essentially seeking police powers to investigate and prosecute companies that are in the running for, or are likely to win, ACT tenders,” Ms Lee said. “This is an extraordinary overreach of power…

“The fact is that Andrew Barr’s weak response to some of the incredibly damning revelations about what is going on inside the unions only shows that Australian Capital Territory branches are emboldened to demand this kind of additional power and that is totally unacceptable.”

Mr Barr said yesterday that the CFMEU’s proposals were “neither a policy position of the ACT Labor Party nor something that was being actively considered by the Government”.

But how will CFMEU-backed MPs vote if the CFMEU proposal comes up for debate at Labour conference? And in whose interest: the people of Canberra or the union?

“The close relationship between the CFMEU and the ACT Labor Party cannot be overstated,” Ms Lee said.