Setka stripped of CFMEU membership, faces claim over slush fund millions

Résumé détaillé

The union’s administrator has branded the former union boss a “disgrace” and vowed to regain control of the fund.

Disgraced ex-CFMEU leader John Setka has been expelled from the union he transformed into one of the most powerful and controversial industrial and political forces in the nation.

The union administration’s decision to rip up Setka’s last remaining formal tie to the CFMEU — his union ticket — comes as Victoria’s Kourakis royal commission unearths extraordinary witness testimony about the conduct of the union and the state Labor government on the $109 billion Big Build infrastructure scheme.

In announcing Setka’s expulsion, union administrator Michael Crosby said Setka was expelled after facing 27 disciplinary charges under the union’s disciplinary process, including allegations he misappropriated more than $3 million in union funds.

“John Setka held a position of responsibility but abused that privilege to take millions of dollars from the members of the CFMEU,” Crosby said.

“John Setka’s conduct is shameful. He has failed in the most basic duties of a union official – to put members’ interests above all.”

In September, The Age revealed that Setka was refusing to cede control of more than $1 million held in a private political slush fund that has earned millions of dollars, including via a deal struck with Coca-Cola to take a cut of the sale of soft drinks on building sites.

Leaked correspondence showed that Setka had been sent demands from Crosby to hand back to the union control of a multimillion-dollar slush fund that “could have been – and should have been – income earned by the CFMEU for the benefit of its members”.

Crosby’s ongoing forensic inquiries have determined the Setka-controlled slush fund had received “over $400,000” from Coca-Cola Amatil, as the fund earned more than $3 million from building site vending machine deals and the sale of CFMEU merchandise.

Setka has previously told this masthead the vending machine arrangement had been struck long before he became secretary of the union and denied any wrongdoing.

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