CFMEU in court amid overhaul bid

National secretary of the controversy-plagued Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU), Zach Smith, has attended a Melbourne court as the Fair Work Commission seeks to appoint a independent administrator.

Last week, Fair Work Commission general manager Murray Furlong filed a case in the Federal Court seeking to appoint barrister Mark Irving KC as administrator of the CFMEU’s construction and general division branches across six states and territories.

Under the proposed scheme, Mr Irving will be tasked with bringing the branches into “lawful compliance” and given powers to sack officials, control union funds and overhaul governance.

The case was called before Justice Michael Wheelahan on Tuesday morning for a case management hearing as more than a dozen lawyers packed the Federal Court.

Counsel for Fair Work Commission, Brendan Avallone, said a “large endeavour” was underway to prepare evidence to support the overhaul bid.

“I’m not able to indicate how that will progress,” he said.

“The applicant will be in a better position to give a timeline at the next hearing.”

Counsel for the CFMEU, Christopher Tran, said lawyers for the union had read documents supplied by the Fair Work Commission and had written a 70-page letter in return questioning aspects of the case.

He told the court he would be in a better position to outline the unions response at the next hearing once these questions were addressed.

The court was also told the CFMEU would face related action brought by the NSW Government at the Industrial Court this Thursday seeking to appoint an administrator for the state branch.

Counsel for NSW Industrial Relations Minister Sophie Cotsis, flagged the “possibility” the linked cases would have to be cross-vested in the NSW Supreme Court to determine the appropriate jurisdiction.

The move to install administrators was made after allegations of kickbacks, organised crime infiltration and intimidation against the union were aired by 60 Minutes and the Nine newspapers.

The CFMEU national executive has made efforts to install its own administrator to take over construction division of the union.

Justice Wheelahan recused himself from the case as he had previously acted as counsel against the union and several of the 268 named respondents.

“It will therefore be allocated to another judge of the court,” he said.

“I reviewed this over the weekend and had a short period of time to come to the judgement I outlined before. It’s going to take a little time before the matter is reallocated.”

The case will return to court at a later date.