An inquiry into the construction union CFMEU has turned its attention to whether the union bent regulators to its will. Since November, the inquiry has heard explosive accounts of alleged standover tactics and violence linked to the union. This week, in the tenth block of hearings, the focus shifted to claims that the CFMEU captured or bullied industry regulators and the construction watchdog. The allegations strike at the question of whether agencies meant to oversee the sector could act independently.
Central to this week's evidence was the testimony of Andrea Fox, whose account painted a stark picture of the union's alleged use of physical threats to influence government agencies. According to the commission, eight years ago Fox was a safety official at the state's Office of Industrial Relations. New to the role, she attended the CFMEU's Brisbane office to discuss changes to a code of practice. What was meant to be a routine meeting, she said, took a very different turn.
Fox told the inquiry that her meeting with State President Royce Kupsch was cut short by an abusive tirade from State Secretary Michael Ravbar, a man she said she had never met before. She described how alarmed she felt in the room at the time. As she put it, she remember telling herself she would have to watch the two men closely because the situation might become physical. She said she even feared one of them could lose control of his temper and strike her.
Her version of events was challenged when she was cross-examined. Mr Ravbar's lawyer accused her of exaggerating his behaviour, suggesting she had done so because she was professionally embarrassed. Responding to that line of questioning, Fox sought to clarify the nature of what she had described. She said she did not want to suggest that the confrontation had been at the volume of yelling across a field.
Beyond the single encounter, Fox described what she said were lasting consequences. She claimed that, as a result of the meeting, the union refused to work with her going forward. According to her evidence, the CFMEU would treat other officials it did not like in the same way. In effect, she said, those officials were declared persona non grata by the union.
The inquiry did not stop at Fox's account. The commission also heard evidence relating to another Queensland public servant, Helen Burgess, who was a director at Workplace Health and Safety. Her involvement added to the broader picture the inquiry has been assembling about the union's alleged dealings with regulators. Taken together, the testimony pointed to a pattern that investigators are now examining closely.
The hearings form part of a wider examination of how the CFMEU operated and whether bodies set up to regulate the construction sector were able to do their jobs free from pressure. For the union officials named in the evidence, the allegations remain just that, with the denials and challenges to the witnesses forming part of the proceedings. As the inquiry moves through its successive blocks of hearings, the question of the union's influence over regulators is set to remain firmly in focus.