BY VANNESSA HEARMAN
MELBOURNE — Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) state secretary Martin Kingham was acquitted of breaching the Royal Commission Act at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on May 2, following a three-day court hearing.
Two charges were brought against Kingham, after he did not provide the Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry with documents containing names of union members and shop stewards. Magistrate John Hardy, however, ruled that the second charge constituted a threat of double punishment for the same alleged offence. He then dismissed the remaining charge.
He also ordered the Director for Public Prosecutions Office to pay Kingham's legal costs.
Hardy said that the existence of the documents had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt. He said that if the documents did exist, there was a stronger possibility that Kingham did not have custody and control of them and could not have provided them to the royal commission.
Branch president of the general and construction division of the CFMEU John Cummins told Green Left Weekly that the charges failed because they were politically motivated.
"Just as during the Builders Labourers Federation deregistration in 1986, Chief Magistrates Darcy Dugan in Melbourne and Pat O'Shane in Sydney refused to allow their courts to be used as a political court, similarly [so did] those in the Magistrates Court this time."
He pointed out that the government might choose to use the Federal Court to prosecute such offences in the future.
After the decision was handed down, Kingham told the crowd of building workers outside the court that his success showed the charges against him were just part of a political witch-hunt. He said, "[Federal employment minister] Tony Abbott is so obsessed with his anti-union agenda he'll go to any lengths to stir up trouble. His agenda is to drag people through the courts, to spend taxpayers' money to tie up the unions in costly legal actions. That tactic saw Abbott fall at the first hurdle."
Kingham said that he was intended to be "the prize scalp", but that the fight was only beginning. At least three other union officials are due to face court on a number of charges for breaching the workplace relations act.
From Green Left Weekly, May 7, 2003.
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