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The workplace watchdog has launched an investigation into allegations that disgraced former Queensland CFMEU boss Michael Ravbar has resurfaced in Victoria’s firefighting union.
This masthead has confirmed that the Fair Work Commission is investigating why Ravbar, who was sacked as state secretary of Queensland’s CFMEU branch when the union was placed in administration, has been engaged in recent dealings with the United Firefighters Union and its leader Peter Marshall.
The supposedly banished Ravbar’s move from Queensland into a Victorian union that wields significant and controversial power in the state Labor Party presents another major problem for Premier Jacinta Allan and her efforts to cauterise the ongoing union and building industry scandal.
Ravbar has been accused in a Queensland commission of inquiry into the CFMEU as leading a violent and misogynistic culture in its pursuit of power in the sunshine state.
A report by Geoffrey Watson, SC, into the Queensland CFMEU and presented at the inquiry alleged Ravbar and other senior leaders oversaw a culture of abuse and harassment, which was “eagerly executed” by some union organisers, delegates and rank-and-file members. The report stated Ravbar denigrated politicians in public speeches and constantly abused one minister in a way that was described as “relentless”.
Ravbar unsuccessfully led a High Court challenge to the Albanese government’s move to put the CFMEU into administration.
As head of the firefighters union, Marshall has spent months seeking to suppress a still secret report by Victoria’s corruption watchdog into his union’s decade-old dealings with the Labor government.
The commission investigation will probe Ravbar’s dealings with the UFU’s governance committee and whether these breach federal laws that ban a person sacked from the CFMEU from operating within another union without approval from the regulator.
Ravbar, who ran the Queensland CFMEU for almost 20 years, is a close ally of former Victorian CFMEU boss John Setka, who is in turn close to Marshall. Neither Marshall nor Ravbar responded to requests for comment.
The move comes after messages were leaked to this masthead between Allan government minister Luba Grigorovitch and disgraced Victorian CFMEU boss Setka revealing her efforts to create a “formidable force” in state politics through an alliance with both Setka and Marshall.
Grigorovitch’s messages from 2018 deal with one of the most controversial union and state government spats – the fight between Marshall and then-emergency services minister Jane Garrett, who died of cancer in 2022.
The fight was raging in 2018 at a time when Grigorovitch, Setka and Garrett had formed a breakaway political faction – the Industrial Left.
At the time, Garrett was also at war with Marshall over her concerns he was improperly pressing the then Andrews Labor government to give his union the sweetheart pay deal that would later draw the scrutiny of corruption watchdog IBAC.
The leaked messages show Grigorovitch advising Setka in 2018 about how to position himself and their faction to achieve maximum political power – including by ending the feud between Garrett and Marshall.
“I’m sure that Jane wants to make a truce and put all of this behind her so if you can get him [Marshall] on the same page, and we could all meet up & work together that would be a formidable force!” Grigorovitch says in one leaked text messages from mid-2018. “Hope you can pull it off.”
Grigorovitch declined to comment on Wednesday.
This masthead has previously reported that Grigorovitch sought to help Setka as he faced family violence allegations, including by engaging with a PR expert recommended by Grigorovitch.
“I think this morning went really well and I’m so pleased that we have a strategic plan going forward!” Grigorovitch messaged Setka in mid-2019 about his efforts to minimise the fallout from his domestic violence offending for which he was ultimately convicted in court. “We will get through this John xx”
In 2022, Setka’s CFMEU supported Grigorovitch’s entry into state parliament as a Labor MP loyal to the construction union. In her maiden speech, Grigorovitch thanked Setka.
Allan promoted Grigorovitch to cabinet in April this year. At the time, Grigorovitch said she had “no regrets” about her past friendship with Setka, despite the opposition labelling her promotion “appalling”.
On Wednesday, Allan denied her office had encouraged a rail consortium to cut a deal with the CFMEU that allowed the union to put its preferred labour hire company onto a Big Build site despite a greater cost to taxpayers.
In a statement, Allan said the allegations detailed in this masthead were “baseless” and anyone with evidence should report them to the authorities.
Three sources with deep knowledge of a 2022 level crossing removal project had separately claimed ministerial pressure was applied from Allan’s office during a dispute between the CFMEU and an alliance of builders including CPB and John Holland.
In June 2022, CFMEU delegates took industrial action at a road and rail shutdown for a level crossing project at Gap Road, Sunbury. They demanded firms linked to the rival Australian Workers’ Union be removed and replaced with their own affiliated companies.
The Gap Road sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said representatives of the two tier-one firms were informed by Rail Projects Victoria officials that Allan, who was transport infrastructure minister at the time, wanted to know if they would cut a deal with the CFMEU.
BK Labour was placed on the project, a firm that police have recently alleged to be corrupt and was last year charged with financial crimes.
On Monday, Allan dismissed the claims about her intervention, and in a statement on Wednesday again said there was no evidence for them.
“These allegations are baseless,” she said. “If anyone has any evidence of these allegations, they should provide them to the authorities so that they can be investigated. We tore up Sunbury’s worst bottleneck by removing the level crossing at Gap Road. I’m proud of that project and what it delivered.”
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Nick McKenzie is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email.From our partners
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