Charges of assault against Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) organiser Justin Steele have been dropped by Queensland police after the complaint against him was withdrawn. This is the fifth time a construction union official has had criminal charges made by the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption taskforce dropped.
Federal police alleged Steele struck a female builder-developer's arm and pushed her shoulder during a standoff at a South Brisbane site in May last year. The charges against him were dropped on March 23.
Charges of assault against Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) organiser Justin Steele have been dropped by Queensland police after the complaint against him was withdrawn. This is the fifth time a construction union official has had criminal charges made by the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption taskforce dropped.
Federal police alleged Steele struck a female builder-developer's arm and pushed her shoulder during a standoff at a South Brisbane site in May last year. The charges against him were dropped on March 23.
The CFMEU's national construction secretary Dave Noonan said: “Steele has maintained all along he did nothing wrong. He had a disagreement with a building developer over getting onto a site.”
Steele was taking photographs of unsafe practices on the construction site when the developer stopped him from entering and demanded he give her his phone. Steele walked away, the developer followed and an argument occurred. The incident was recorded by both sides, with the footage clearly showing the developer striking Steele but not that assaulting the developer.
The CFMEU's lawyer Luke Tiley said: “This is another example of inappropriate use of police resources to regulate the conduct of industrial relations. It is the second time in as many months that the TURC police taskforce has had to discontinue charges against officials of our client, the Queensland Branch of the Construction Division of the CFMEU.”
This is the fifth failed criminal case arising out of the trade union royal commission and its associated police taskforces. Earlier in March the director of public prosecutions dropped charges against CFMEU ACT secretary Dean Hall, because the case fell outside the statutory time period. Hall had been charged over alleged intimidation of a WorkSafe inspector on a Claxton construction site in Canberra in 2013.
The other three cases involved dropped charges against CFMEU ACT official John Lomax, Queensland CFMEU assistant secretary Andrew Sutherland and a not guilty verdict for the NSW official Michael Greenfield.
Up to 30 federal police spent the past 18 months investigating so-called criminal conduct by unions. In all that time, the only criminal case against a CFMEU official to have succeeded was the case against former ACT organiser Fihi Kivalu, who pleaded guilty on March 10 to blackmail charges.
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