I justneed this to stop’: Dead after first day on CFMEU site

Nick McKenzie, Reid Butler and David Marin-Guzman

Jul 15, 2024 – 12.15pm

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WhenIndigenous Melbourne man Ben Nash left for work on the morning of January 24, aday before his 19th birthday, all his mother Tammie knew was that her son washeading to a job he loved.

“He was drawnto civil construction,” she says of Ben, a proud Gunditjmara man and devotedplayer at the North Ringwood Football Club.

Ben Nash’swork gear rests atop his coffin.

She sayshe’d overcome mental health issues to throw himself not only into footy, buthis dream of building a career in construction. An Indigenous constructionfirm, Marda Dandhi, had not only offered Ben a job, but gave him what Tammiedescribed as a chance to “just embrace his Indigenous heritage”.

“Ben lovedit. He couldn’t have loved it any more.”

But eversince he skipped out the door that January morning, Tammie’s days have beenmarked with discoveries about all that she didn’t know and would yet find out.

She didn’tknow that the construction industry her son was entering was infested withunderworld figures and cronyism, fuelled by crooked businesses and certainCFMEU officials who have formed an unholy alliance to control who works, andwho doesn’t, on major projects.

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A Melbourne mum is demandingchange after her son died following his first shift on a CFMEU governmentworksite.

The fierymother of two was unaware that the Indigenous company that had given her sonhis first start, Marda Dandhi – run by Mandandanji man Danny Miller – had beentargeted by the CFMEU. Nor did she know that a union organiser had, many monthsearlier, threatened to bash Miller along with another of Ben’s bosses,labelling the pair “dogs”.

Tammie hadno idea that a second senior union official had warned her son’s bosses that,without CFMEU backing, they would never access any sites funded by the Labor government.Neither of those men had direct contact with Ben.

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She also wasn’t expecting Ben to arrive home early from work distraught that same January day, telling her he’d been bullied and humiliated on a building site because the CFMEU was angry he’d previously been employed by Marda Dandhi.

Tammie didn’t know that the next morning, when she was meant to be making him a birthday brekkie, she would instead find him in his bed, his lips blue and skin cold, having taken a fatal overdose of his mental health and prescription medicine.

‘He was told to f— off, they locked him in a shed’

It will ultimately be up to a coroner to formally determine the cause of Ben’s death, but Tammie is now demanding action against those behind the culture of fear and intimidation in the CFMEU she believes cost her son his life.

Tammie believes Ben’s treatment at work “tipped him over the edge”.

Asked who she blames for his death, Tammy utters five letters: “C.F.M.E.U.

Construction was Ben Nash’s dreamcareer.

“According to Ben, he waspulled aside [by an unnamed CFMEU representative] and told that nobody thatworked for Marda [Dandhi] would ever be welcome on site again. He was told tof--- off. He just wanted to work. He rang his employer to try and sortsomething out, and CFMEU wouldn’t listen to him. They didn’t offer any help.They locked him in a shed for three or four hours, just a young boy with mentalhealth issues.”

Tammie is hardly a lone voicein calling out the culture of union-linked intimidation and questionabledealings in the building industry.

Nash’s death, and hismother’s determination to make something good of it, gives a human face – thatof the ordinary suburban Australian worker – to an unfolding catalogue ofconstruction union badness. The CFMEU denies responsibility for the death.

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The story of Nash’s deathcomes amid a crisis engulfing the CFMEU. On Friday construction division bossJohn Setka resigned after receiving detailed questions from this masthead.

On Saturday, an investigationinto the CFMEU by The Australian Financial Review, TheAge, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes revealed how bikies and underworld figures were thriving in theconstruction sector. On Sunday, it was reported how Setka made a menacing nighttime visit to thefamily home of a fellow union leader.

Federal and state governmentshave flagged they will take action againstthe union and on Monday the Victorian branch was placed in administration.

Over the weekend TheAustralian Financial Review and 60 Minutes alsopublished covert video of the union official threatening to bash the two ownersof Nash’s company and an industry fixer – caught in a covert sting – whoclaimed to be able to bribe CFMEU officials in order to parachute corruptcompanies onto the Victorian and federal government-funded Big Build and forcenon-preferred companies off sites.

Victoria’s state andfederally funded $100 billion Big Build road and rail infrastructure programwas where Ben wanted to be, says Tammie, recalling her son’s fascination withlarge civil projects. “On his days off work, he’d pay out of his own pocket andgo and get tickets so that he could operate more machinery.”

Tammie says Ben’s last dayalive stands in stark contrast to his earlier time working for Marda Dandhi, afledgling Indigenous construction firm started by Danny Miller.

According to Miller’sLinkedIn profile, Marda Dandhi’s vision was to place Indigenous men and womeninto long-term, sustainable jobs by equipping them with new skills and a senseof pride and purpose. Miller declined to be interviewed, with friends sayinghe’s had his own mental health struggles after the firm’s collapse.

For Ben, Tammie says MardaDandhi was a “perfect fit”.

“They were terrific. Employeewelfare is really important to them. I’d be ringing him or messaging him, ‘Areyou coming home for dinner? No, I’m still working, mum. Someone needs a chop outhere’ or ‘a hand here’.”

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In late 2023, Tammie says shefirst heard from Ben that the firm was struggling and would likely shut down.She says she didn’t press him on the reason for Marda Dandhi’s problems at thetime, instead accepting Ben’s offer for him to fly her to Bali.

“I was lucky enough to havetwo trips to Bali with him, that he paid for to take his mum away, which wasbeautiful memories,” she says.

While she and Ben were onholidays, Marda Dandhi was winding down.

The company had facedmultiple challenges, from COVID, pay problems and racism among some bigbuilders.

Despite initially securingCFMEU and Australian Workers’ Union support, the former turned on them. Thechange in attitude is made clear in covert footage of two senior constructionunion officials, filmed in March 2022 on a publicly funded Big Build project.

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Twoofficials threatening a labour hire operator at a construction site

The film records senior CFMEUIndigenous organiser, Joel Shackleton, repeatedly threatening to violently bashMiller, telling him he would “f---ing end you, c--- and you know it, don’tf---- with me. I’ll f---ing take your soul and I’ll rip your f---ing head off.Don’t f---- with me, c---. F--- you. You’re a f---ing dog.”

The covert video alsocaptures a second high-ranking CFMEU official, Gerry McCrudden, warning thatany firms without CFMEU backing – in the form of a CFMEU-endorsed enterprisebargaining agreement – would struggle to win work on any major civil sites dueto the construction union’s control of the Labor government key tier 1contractors.

“We’ve got them [tier 1contractors] all,” McCrudden says.

“And youse [sic] won’t becoming in with our companies.”

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It is not suggested thateither man had contact with Nash or was involved in the events leading up tohis death. Neither commented when contacted last week.

‘Mum, I just need to sleep’

It was onlyin January, the day Ben arrived home early, utterly distraught, that Tammielearned of the extent of acrimony between the CFMEU and Marda Dandhi.

He told her he had beenbullied by an unnamed CFMEU representative and ordered to sit in a shed forhours because, even though he was working for a new company, Ben had worn aMarda Dandhi T-shirt.

Ben Nash with his mum TammiePalmer.

“He was angry and stressed,and yeah, just not himself. He was worried. Yeah. He’d been told that he wasn’twelcome on site because of the Marda shirt that he had on.”

He told his mum he had been“belittled… yelled at, sworn at and ignored.”

“He said, ‘I feel sorry foranybody that has ever worked for Danny, because anybody that has ever workedfor Marda will never get a job on a CFMEU site ever again’,” Tammie said.

Tammie believed Ben’streatment made him fear for his future in a career he had only started.

“He was worried about his newjob … He was 18 years old, first day on site. No other workers there that heknew. No support. I thought that’s what unions were supposed to do, look aftertheir employees.”

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For Tammie, what happenednext is a blur.

“I asked him if he was OK …and he said, ‘Mum, I just need to sleep. I just need to sleep. I just need thisto stop.’

“So, he went to bed and Ichecked up on him at about midnight to make sure he was OK, and he was fine.”

But when Ben didn’t walk outto the kitchen for breakfast, Tammie checked on her son again.

“He was cold. His lips wereblue. He was clearly dead. His girlfriend was hysterical, obviously, we allwere. And then it was just calling triple 0. He was gone. There was nothing wecould do.”

Next came the “mostunbelievable pain”.

“I just sat outside. Theambos came and the fireys come, police come and detectives come, because Benwas so young and an unexpected death.”

Tammie hopes the coroner willget to the bottom of her son’s death.

Tammie says CFMEU officialsvisited her and tried to downplay the role of workplace intimidation in Ben’sdeath. But Tammie isn’t buying it.

“Where was the duty of carefor my son? Why was he locked in a shed for so long? Why didn’t they tell himto turn his shirt inside out?”

“They didn’t want him there.They didn’t want him on site. They didn’t want him there, purely because he waswearing the Marda Dandhi shirt.

“Kids can’t go to work andend up dead the next day. No family needs to go through this.”