Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s delicate dance with the CFMEU

Civil had traditionally been the domain of CFMEU enemy and Labor Right union, the Australian Workers Union. For the CFMEU to be handed civil in the middle of the state’s billion-dollar infrastructure boom was a major coup.

It also opened up a sector of the industry to a union the courts had deemed the “greatest recidivist offender in Australia’s corporate history”, one that repeatedly sought to place itself above the law when it came to coercion, intimidation and other industrial offences.

Suddenly subcontractors and labour hire firms with AWU agreements claimed they were getting kicked off multiple government building sites by CFMEU officials mid-contract.

Established subcontractors, including Indigenous labour-hire firms assisting vulnerable workers, faced having to exit the industry after losing millions of dollars in work.

Builders did not put up a fuss. The state infrastructure authorities did little.

While the Andrews government would strongly deny it, union and industry sources claimed the deal was for the CFMEU to get coverage over civil in return for funding and political support ahead of the November 2022 state election.

The AWU was shocked this was happening while Treasurer Tim Pallas – an AWU-backed minister – was heading industrial relations. They were convinced he had given the move the OK.

That October, just weeks ahead of the election, Pallas was billed as the guest of honour at a private lunch organised by the CFMEU with John Setka and union-backed contractors.

Then-public transport minister Ben Carroll, who has now been elected Victoria’s deputy premier, also attended.

Despite internal CFMEU calendar invitations pegging the two-hour lunch at Carlton’s Epocha restaurant as a “CFMEU private ALP fundraiser”, Pallas would insist it was just an “industry forum” to discuss construction issues.

But by the end of 2022, Pallas had defected from the Labor Right to the Socialist Left in a major blow to the AWU.

The delicate political dance with the CFMEU over money and votes had arguably secured Andrews and Allans’ faction a clear majority in state caucus.

Allan briefed on CFMEU ‘coercion’

At the top of the infrastructure portfolio, Allan was very aware of the CFMEU coercion allegations.

The Australian Financial Review revealed emails from last year that indicated Victoria’s Major Transport Infrastructure Authority industrial relations director, Darren Driscoll, had briefed Allan on reports the CFMEU kicked one Indigenous firm off nine government projects, including the state’s signature $200 billion Suburban Rail Project.

Allan is understood to have personally met CFMEU officials over the matter but little was done, and the union maintained its hard-line stance.

The Fair Work Ombudsman later initiated an investigation into the CFMEU coercion claims off the back of the Financial Review’s articles.

It is understood the investigation, which is expected to be finalised by early next year, could extend to the actions of the government and the infrastructure authority itself.

For her part, Allan is understood to be close to CFMEU Victorian political liaison officer Elizabeth Doidge – the partner of the branch’s assistant secretary, Joe Myles, who has charge of civil construction and is a potential successor to Setka.

On her election as premier, CFMEU construction division secretary Zach Smith praised Allan, saying she had “shown all the right signs she will be an excellent premier who continues the state government’s work in building vital infrastructure”.

Smith even praised newly appointed deputy Ben Carroll – from the Right – for his “great leadership through his delivery of the fair jobs code, which will secure dignified and meaningful employment through state government purchasing power”.

But union sources said Allan’s allegiance to the CFMEU is not necessarily a natural one.

Her husband Yorick Piper is a former Victorian official in the CFMEU, but for its forestry and manufacturing division – a rival of Setka’s construction division.

Piper worked closely with Michael O’Connor in 2009 and 2010 when O’Connor – who is also the head of the manufacturing division – was the national secretary of the CFMEU.

O’Connor is now a hated element of Setka’s Victorian branch after he failed to publicly support Setka over the latter’s domestic violence conviction and was later forced to resign as national secretary.

Allan’s ex-husband, Ben Davis, is also the recently departed AWU Victorian secretary.

This week, Allan appointed Danny Pearson – an AWU-backed MP – to the transport infrastructure portfolio. Some see this as a potential circuit breaker in the CFMEU war with the AWU that could return some coverage to the Labor Right union post-election.

But industry sources said the real question is if the CFMEU will let it.

“The genie is out of the bottle, and you can’t just put it back in,” one ventured.