Administration was imposed on the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) in Queensland in 2024, because it supposedly brought bikies into the industry as union enforcers.
However, the August 18–25 hearings of the Queensland Liberal National Party government’s commission of inquiry revealed that a major contractor had been responsible for bringing in bikies, who intimidated members of the CFMEU.
It revealed the bosses’ campaign against a union that has consistently stood up for its members.
The inquiry focus was on a 2024 dispute at the Centenary Bridge site in Magan-djin/Brisbane, where, on June 5, three people claiming to be leaders of the Comancheros bikie gang flew from Naarm/Melbourne to Magan-djin and were accompanied to the site by Gary Samuel, from Host Group, one of the groups providing security.
The bikies allegedly made death and arson threats against Cody Raymond, a Georgiou Group-employed crane driver and CFMEU member.
CCTV footage and mobile phone records appear to show construction outfit BMD Group’s regional general manager Rob Pickard and human resources manager Steve Thomas near the bikies before the incident, including them all walking to the site.
A commission lawyer suggested that Thomas had pointed Raymond out to the bikies and arranged for workers to stop anyone else coming into the site.
BMD, the largest family owned business in the civil construction industry in Australia, was the leading company in the joint venture on the site.
The establishment media initially reported the bikie threats against Raymond in August 2024 and again when the commission was sitting. But its focus was on the bikies and the CFMEU; it ignored the building companies’ complicity in the threats to Raymond and the possible involvement of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), including AWU Victorian secretary Ronnie Hayden, who recommended to Pickard that BMD engage Host.
Tim Gooden, from Defend the Unions — Defend the CFMEU in Victoria, told Green Left that the AWU, which has traditionally had coverage of civil construction work, also has a history of being more pro-boss compared to the CFMEU.
“Workers must have the right to join the union of their choice,” Gooden said. “It helps root out tame unions, which do not want to struggle against the bosses. But even established union membership boundaries must be up for challenge where they don’t match the work being done.”
In civil construction, the AWU has benefited from employers’ powers, under Labor’s Fair Work Act, to sign “greenfields” agreements with whatever union they choose. These agreements can be made for new construction projects, such as civil construction.
The CFMEU was trying to get the greenfields agreement for the Centenary Bridge project and presumably at other BMD sites. There is no doubt that the Centenary Bridge dispute was hard fought.
The inquiry heard allegations that security contractor Grant Killen of Concentric Concepts surveilled BMD directors and one of its security contractors.
The same BMD security contractor conceded his company had paid Host for its security staff, meaning that Host did not have a licence for security operations in Queensland.
The bosses’ witnesses complained to the inquiry about an organised leafleting operation against BMD bosses in the suburbs where they lived and at football games where BMD was a sponsor.
At the building site, the CFMEU mobilised its members from across the city to disrupt a concrete pour. BMD accused Raymond in particular of providing information to mobilise the CFMEU in bigger numbers than BMD security.
Stuart Wood, the inquiry’s commissioner, commented that such a tactic to gain coverage of the site was “very sensible” from the CFMEU’s perspective, although he added that he was not commenting on whether it was lawful.
At no point during the hearing were the CFMEU’s actions at the site said to be unlawful. Rather, the inquiry heard that the CFMEU asked police to enforce entry rights for organisers; the union also followed a court order in May to stop its campaign for coverage.
Wood noted that bikie threats might be a crime, saying: “Given what was said [and] the material we saw … Mr Samuel might be … guilty of the crime of conspiring to commit a crime … and there might be some suggestion that Mr Pickard and Mr Thomas … would be guilty of that crime.”
Against Pickard and Thomas, witnesses at the hearings who repeatedly stated “I don’t recall”, Wood raised “a suggestion of perjury … [which applies] to persons who knowingly give false testimony”.
Wood discussed BMD’s failure to provide the CCTV footage to police later in 2024 and to the inquiry, and Thomas’ attempt to delete the footage as two “separate wrongs”.
Although it was not spelt out, a Georgiou’s manager, in anticipation of an investigation, apparently did download the footage after Raymond complained about the incident. This might have been the commission’s source.
Gareth Davie, another Georgiou manager, said its investigation concluded that there was “insufficient evidence” to support Raymond’s account.
With Samuel ordered off-site, although BMD continued to contract Host last year, Georgiou told Raymond to get back to work and, as he did not, “he was terminated”.
Lawyer Chris O’Grady, for the imposed CFMEU administration, stepped up to defend a worker. He asked Davie if, given the video evidence, Georgiou had “failed in its duty of care to Mr Raymond … there was an obligation on behalf of his employer to protect and look after [him]”.
Finally, Scott Power, BMD’s CEO and son of its founder, tried to claim he didn’t know why there was a dispute.
The commission’s lawyer Edward Gisonda asked Power what he did in response to being told that “a worker had made a complaint about this incident”. Power replied: “I was informed there had been an incident and that an investigation had been commenced.”
That was all — despite being told of the bikie involvement.
Power accepted Pickard’s and Samuel’s denials of having any connection and he continued to do that until he had to correct his written statement to the commission from the stand.