Building Bad
A months-long investigation into the CFMEU has uncovered rife infiltration by bikies and organised criminals, intimidation and allegations of corruption.
Exclusive
Building bad: How bikies, underworld have become a construction industry ‘cancer’
A months-long investigation featuring secret surveillance reveals how bikies, criminals and underworld figures have infiltrated the building industry, including on large publicly funded projects.
- by Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Ben Schneiders
Exclusive
‘Everyone eats’: Secret audio lays bare CFMEU kickback plan
A fixer has been caught on tape offering to set up kickbacks to union officials to win work for a company as police evidence mounts against John Setka’s anointed successor over suspected corruption.
- by Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman, Ben Schneiders and Amelia Ballinger
Exclusive
Warning on CFMEU intimidation sent to Allan, Albanese in 2022
A construction company battling CFMEU standover tactics wrote to top Labor politicians detailing their trouble and offering proof.
- by Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Ben Schneiders
Exclusive
Government to appoint independent administrator for CFMEU
The advice to the government is that deregistering the CFMEU would not work because the union could continue to act against employers.
- by David Crowe, Ben Schneiders, Angus Thompson and Paul Sakkal
Opinion
I witnessed the rot set in at the CFMEU. Here’s how it happened
When John Setka and his band took control, muscle became everything – no matter where the muscle came from.
- by John Sutton
Indigenous justice commission to probe worksite allegations amid CFMEU fallout
Premier Jacinta Allan has also confirmed that the Victorian Labor Party had begun formal processes to eject the CFMEU’s construction division from its ranks.
- by Broede Carmody and Kieran Rooney
Exclusive
‘I just need it to end’: CFMEU power play turned Ben’s construction dream into a fatal nightmare
The day before his 19th birthday, the young man went to his first day in a new job. He was bullied, humiliated and locked in a shed.
- by Nick McKenzie, Reid Butler and David Marin-Guzman
Analysis
It’s a union, not a bikie gang: CFMEU needs a serious overhaul, not more of the same
The union’s national body wants policymakers and the public to think it’s taken a strong step. It hasn’t.
- by Ben Schneiders
Exclusive
Labor executive set to ban donations from Victorian CFMEU
The move is an attempt to cauterise the political damage over revelations of underworld infiltration into the scandal-plagued construction union.
- by Angus Thompson and Paul Sakkal
Exclusive
‘Leo the dog’: Setka caught on tape delivering threatening message to rival’s home
Video of the former union chief’s night-time visit emerges, plus other officials filmed in abusive tirade on $761 million government project.
- by Nick McKenzie, Ben Schneiders, David Marin-Guzman and Reid Butler
‘Everything on the table’: Burke weighs deregistration of CFMEU construction division amid revelations
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has threatened deregistration if the union doesn’t clean house.
- by James Massola and Annika Smethurst
Updated
‘Good’: Albanese welcomes Setka resignation amid calls for CFMEU probe
Amid allegations that senior bikie figures and criminals have been handed lucrative union roles on government-funded projects, the PM said the former union boss’s alleged behaviour should be condemned, isolated and stamped out.
- by Annika Smethurst, Harriet Alexander and Anthony Segaert
Updated
John Setka resigns immediately as head of CFMEU
The powerful construction union boss resigned on Friday night in the face of a raft of explosive allegations about misconduct involving him and the CFMEU.
- by Nick McKenzie, Angus Thompson and Kieran Rooney