Libby Mettam: Come clean on dirty money

Anthony Albanese knows the CFMEU is corrupt, every other State leader knows the CFMEU is corrupt but the Cook Labor Government is categorical that nothing of the sort is happening in Western Australia.

Last I checked, crime and dirty money doesn’t stop at the border.

There’s certainly a degree of valour to be had in standing up for your mates but there is no honour to be found in Roger Cook and Rita Saffioti’s decision to bury their heads in the sand with regard to the WA CFMEU’s dodgy track record.

Premier Cook’s stubborn refusal to distance himself raises concerns about his commitment to upholding the integrity of the construction industry and protecting workers from criminal influences.

This week, I wrote to the Premier asking him to agree to refuse all future donations from the CFMEU and return the union’s recent $25,000 donation; to guarantee all previous CFMEU funds received by WA Labor had no links to organised crime; and to disaffiliate the CFMEU from WA Labor.

The Premier has not responded.

It needs to be asked why the Premier and Deputy Premier will not censure the CFMEU.

Queensland CFMEU secretary Michael Ravbar’s instant response to Prime Minister Albanese’s decision to appoint an independent administrator to examine the operations of the union was to say the Prime Minister was “gutless” and “spineless” and he had “panicked and soiled himself over some unproven allegations in the media”.

However, Ravbar’s further comments that “Albanese knows that a thorough investigation will put Labor governments in a world of pain” and that “the Albanese Labor Government has opened the gates of hell for tens of thousands of workers as he scrambles to shield the big end of town and his Labor mates from scrutiny” are potentially the keenest insight into why the Cook Government in WA is maintaining its “nothing to see here” line.

It’s worth remembering both Ms Saffioti and Mr Cook owe their current positions at the top of the food chain that is the WA parliamentary Labor Party to the support of the union movement, in which the CFMEU is a heavy hitter.

And don’t forget the CFMEU is Labor’s largest donor.

There are, undoubtedly, favours owed.

The Cook Government, at the behest of the CFMEU, recently forced all contractors working on their pet Metronet project to give a 25 per cent pay rise to their workers.

Nurses, on the other hand, received a hard-won 9 per cent pay rise from the Cook Government.

CFMEU-affiliated candidates have been handed the No. 2 and 16 spots on the WA Labor Party’s Upper House ticket at the next State election.

The CFMEU is represented on all major State Government infrastructure projects — from Metronet to road projects to health infrastructure – it must be shown to be above reproach because the current reality indicates it is not.

Deputy Premier Saffioti’s “nothing to see here” stand is hard to believe when the WA CFMEU continues to employ Edmond “Monty” Margjini, a former cage fighter and member of the Sword Boys gang who has been named by police as a stand-over man for bikies.

Margjini is currently facing charges relating to a violent home invasion during which a woman was attacked.

It’s difficult to see what useful, lawful skills Mr Margjini could bring to an organiser role in the CFMEU.

The CFMEU has a long history peppered with allegations of and convictions for systemic corruption and unlawful conduct and of using its power to coerce and disrupt.

The CFMEU rose from the ashes of the notorious Builders Labourers Federation, which was permanently deregistered in 1986 after a royal commission found it was corrupt.

The DNA of the BLF survived the fire because the CFMEU continued its illegal and notorious actions and in 2014, the Heydon royal commission found the union had engaged in death threats, extortion, gross neglect, and other serious criminal matters.

That same DNA has survived in WA.

In 2012 and 2013, WA CFMEU official Bradley Upton was fined $4000, and the union $20,000, for two incidents at Chevron’s Wheatstone project when he used “racially-tainted abusive language” towards Americans.

Mr Upton remained employed by the CFMEU and in 2017, was fined $3500 for preventing workers from entering the Perth Children’s Hospital building site.

Still employed by the CFMEU, in 2018, he was fined more than $50,000 in the Federal Court after he gave Chevron workers an expletive-laden spray, calling them “f...ing dog c...s” for leaving the union.

In 2019, Mr Upton was fined for illegally entering a construction site.

For all his work on behalf of the union, Mr Upton was promoted to assistant secretary of the WA CFMEU.

There is no justification for WA Labor’s decision to prioritise working for — and taking dirty money from — a dodgy, law-breaking union.

It is an abject failure of leadership by Premier Roger Cook that compromises the integrity of his Government as well as the construction industry and leaves workers at the mercy of criminal influences.