The backers who allowed John Setka’s rise toultimate power
Thebackers who allowed John Setka’s rise to ultimate power (msn.com)
Sally McManus could not have been moredirect this week as she spoke directly to the TV cameras and said there was noplace for organised crime and corruption in trade unions.
Themessage was serious, sombre and uncompromising as she was flanked by members ofthe ACTU executive who minutes earlier had voted to suspend the constructiondivision of the CFMEU from the union peak body.
The dramatic move came amid growing criticism over who knew whatand when in the industrial and political wings of the labour movement.
Yetalmost exactly five years ago, McManus stood at the same spot at theACTU’s headquarters in Melbourne to front the cameras and demand Setka resignafter The Age reported extensive detail of the domesticviolence charges he faced at that time.
Thatreporting in June 2019 - based on leaks from the union’s national executive andelsewhere - also included Setka defending his friendship with underworld figureMick Gatto and his remarks claiming Rosie Batty’s advocacy had diminished men’srights. The Batty comments became a rolling national drama, overshadowing theserious nature of his conduct.
In 2019 McManus and ACTU president Michele O’Neil had faced intensepressure over what to do. But they stood their ground and made the principleddecision that Setka had to go.
There have been no compromises from that position in the five yearssince, while Setka and the CFMEU’s influence on his national union, theVictorian ALP and big infrastructure projects in his home state have grown everstronger.
That moment in 2019 was probably the last and best chance for internalreform of the construction division in Victoria, NSW and nationally, so largehas Setka’s influence become.
Much of the union movement supported the ACTU in 2019, with 13 nationalunions calling for Setka to quit. The ACTU had no formal power to remove him,as unions jealously guard their independence from outside influence.
But the besieged Setka almost certainly would have been forced out ifnot for the public support garnered from elements of the Victorian Labor Partyand industrial left and his own union across Australia. It emboldened andstrengthened Setka, who dug in.
These backers have been described by senior union figures as Setka’s‘enablers’ and deserve significant criticism for the crisis that has risked thefuture of the CFMEU and by default the wages and conditions of tens ofthousands of workers. The damage to the union movement and Labor has beensubstantial.
These enablers include Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary LukeHilakari - normally a reliable progressive on social issues - filmed at aprivate union meeting in 2019 chanting“John Setka here to stay” as he refused to join the calls for Setka to go. This week Hilakari’s proxy at the ACTU executive remained silent as the future of the CFMEU was debated.
Then there was Electrical Trades Union state secretary Troy Gray, whobecame Setka’s most fanatical and outspoken public supporter. Other key backersinclude now Victorian state MP Luba Grigorovitch, Plumbers’ union head EarlSetches and former senior CFMEU officials Christy Cain and Dave Noonan.
From NSW, Darren Greenfield and Rita Mallia played important roles inbacking Setka. And the favour has been returned, with Setka supportingGreenfield to stay in his job despite the serious corruption charges he faces.
Noonan, meanwhile, won Setka’s backing last year to become a director of$90 billion superannuation fund Cbus, where he joined Setka allies Mallia, theunion’s NSW president, and Setches.
There was also the silence from many who gained factional and financialbenefit over the years from Setka’s union in the Labor Party, particularly inVictoria, where its political and industrial strength has grown significantlysince 2019 and it has managed to displace the rival Australian Workers Union onbig infrastructure projects.
It’s not just Labor. The Greens have received donations in the past fromthe construction division and have been unusually quiet about Setka over theyears. In 2019, the party refused to say if it would take further donationsfrom the union, despite Setka’s record of domestic violence.
It is clear that Setka’s instincts to run the union as a despot haveintensified. The resignation of his deputy Shaun Reardon - who in 2019 demandedSetka go - left Setka utterly dominant. He’s since been surrounded by yes-mensuch as his offsider Derek Christopher, who remains the subject of a policecorruption probe. An investigationby this masthead this week found he also received an estimated $200,000 in free labour and supplies from major building companies. Other senior officials have proved weak and complicit.
John Setka at aCMFEU trade union rally march from Belmore Park to NSW Parliament House in2023.© Michael Quelch
The infiltration of organised crime has clearly intensified too. Whenthe union’s own members and construction workers riotedin 2021 and attacked the union’s offices over COVID restrictions, with some condemning Setka as then premier Daniel Andrews’ “bitch”, some union sources saw it as a turning point.
Setka had been spooked by the revolt of his members, the sources haveclaimed.
Throughout this period, Setka - with his Trump-esque ability tosuccessfully spin almost any bad behaviour -was becoming more powerful in someforums but also more isolated from the federal ALP.
In Canberra, the union had become almost a pariah with Anthony Albaneseas ALP leader (Albanese in 2019 had successfully pushed for Setka to leave theparty after his Batty comments).
Part of Setka’s success - and ongoing survival - was being able to gullsections of the tabloid and commercial media who treated the garrulous tradeunionist as a bit of fun, never seriously questioning him on his record andlinks to organised crime figures or the ongoing allegations against him ofoften vicious domestic violence.
Yet, on Friday, July 12, that whole edifice came crashing down whenSetka ended his 12-year reign after being sent questions from the jointinvestigation by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60Minutes.
The power vacuum this created appeared to confuse the response fromremaining officials and cruel attempts by new national secretary Zach Smith toassume control of Setka’s former branch, which also covers Tasmania and SouthAustralia.
Within days the government said the response was not good enough (Smith,for instance, would not stand down Greenfield over corruption charges) and itwould move to place Setka’s branch into administration along with NSW andQueensland.
Already the pushback has started, with Queensland secretary MichaelRavbar accusing Albanese of having “soiled himself” in response to untestedmedia allegations.
Some union activists, meanwhile, have started arguing the appointment ofadministrators is barely disguised union-busting with the complicity of Laborand the ACTU, whose 52-member executive endorsed the move.
The appointment of administrators is clearly a loss of member democracy,as occurred at the Health Services Union in 2012. But the record shows thatunion is now in far better shape than the corruption-riddled mess it was.
And in Victoria, in particular, how democratic was the CFMEU’sconstruction division anyway? If you were a worker on site and your delegatehad come straight from a senior position at a bikie gang and had been appointedby union head office without your input, how democratic is that? And howconfident would you feel to raise a workplace issue?
Setka, meanwhile, had filled the union’s committee of management withfriends and supporters. The Age has long been aware of CFMEUactivists too scared or “encouraged” not to run a ticket against Setka andallies at union elections. If this was a democracy, it was one in name only andhardly a model of genuine member control.
On Wednesday McManus, as she had five years earlier, had to publiclyaddress the serious problems caused by Setka and the CFMEU and also announcethe ACTU executive had endorsed the government’s position that the union be putinto external administration.
Her role was crucial. Without the support of the ACTU and other seniorunion leaders, it is hard to imagine a Labor government being able to act asboldly as it did.
But it would not have come to this if more Labor and union people hadendorsed the principled position in 2019 that Setka should go.
In the end the person most to blame for what has happened at the CFMEUis Setka, a man whose 30-year career at the union has left it in ruins.
He is a man consumed by a thirst for revenge and control who had come tocompletely dominate his branch. His malign influence has been felt across theunion nationally.
He would never have lasted this long without so many enablers.
