Tony Abbott’s “tough cop on the beat” records union meetings and fixates on swearing while murder, thuggery and corruption go unchecked, the trade union royal commission has heard.
In sensational evidence, a businessmen from the George Alex group of companies said fellow director, Joe Antoun, perforated both his eardrums during a savage beating in a Burwood street.
The commission learned that, months later, Antoun was shot dead in front of his wife and daughter.
The witness, a former NSW police officer, said he developed “serious reservations” about his new line of employment when another business associate, Vasko Boskovski, was murdered.
Another witness on this memorable day was first spotted outside the hearing rooms wearing a NSW Corrections Department jumpsuit and the close attention of armed prison officers.
Jimmy Kendrovski, a shareholder in at least three Sydney construction businesses is banged up in Parklea Prison on firearms offences. A successful cage fighter, Kendrovski said he had been bashed in gaol and was afraid to give honest evidence.
These characters established themselves in the Sydney building industry while it was being policed, at least theoretically, by the Fair Work Building Commission Inspectorate, established by Abbott to counter “intimidation and thuggery”...
In the build up to July 25, Lend Lease sites had been racked by safety issues and everyone in Sydney knew it.
In the preceding few months, a worker had died at Barangaroo and two serious fires had seen the site evacuated.
At the nearby UTS job, opposite Central Station, a crane caught fire and the jib toppled into a busy street at the end of the morning rush hour.
The CFMEU conducted safety audits on Lend Lease sites and called for improvements. The company dismissed those concerns as a union beat-up.
By this time, the FWBC was actively supporting Lend Lease moves to block safety inspections. It was contesting the right of union officials to visit workplaces, then shadowing and photographing them, on behalf of the company, when they did.
It was advising Lend Lease when the company suspended Barangaroo delegate, Peter Genovese, who was leading the safety push.
More than 1,000 workers registered their opposition to that action, in July, but, within 12 hours, Lend Lease had secured return to work orders from the Fair Work Commission.
Around the country, the FWBC has used similar orders to prosecute the CFMEU and chase individual members for fines of up to $21,000.
Hadgkiss has made it clear, in widely-reported statements, that his organisation will seek the confiscation of family homes if workers cannot pay those fines.
Earlier this year, he announced to supporters at the Australian Mines and Metals Association, that he had instituted proceedings against rank and file union members in Western Australia with exactly that intention.
It was against that background, that hundreds of Barangaroo workers met at 6.30am on July 25 to consider their options.
FWBC inspectors concede workers left Barangaroo and crossed the road to meet off-site. They testified they heard officials say, repeatedly, the meeting was for union members only.
However, at least six FWBC Inspectors crashed this meeting, along with armed police and, eyewitnesses estimate, between 50 and 70 Lend Lease middle managers wearing orange vests.
When this support cast was in place, FWBC inspectors took out clipboards and notebooks and made a show of recording what people were saying.
Others moved into the ruck, taking photos and videoing individuals. Someone, believed to have been from Lend Lease, set up a video camera on a tripod and started recording the meeting.
CFMEU Construction division national secretary, Dave Noonan, says Barangaroo is just one example of a long-running FWBC campaign against his organisation.
“Simply, they don’t recognise our right to exist as an active, member-based union,” Noonan says. “There is no common sense with the FWBC. They blow up minor disputes and pressure reasonable employers into taking militant, anti-union positions.
“Tony Abbott is up front about his desire to slash construction costs and he has chosen to do that by attacking wages, entitlements and job security. He has given the job of making that happen to Hadgkiss who is no more a policeman, in this situation, than I am.
”Hadgkiss is a partisan political activist. Knowingly or otherwise, this royal commission has bought into his anti-worker agenda.
“The royal commission has given us a glimpse of what the face of Australian construction will look like if Abbott and Hadgkiss get their way.
“That face looks a lot like George Alex and everyone should take a moment and think about that before it is too late.”
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