A long-term Victorian CFMEU delegate is facing legal action because of a protest against Administration.
The delegate passed a motion at his CBD site in late May with 500 construction workers to “shed up” and stop work if Admin officials turn up on site, as they have promised to do.
Assistant Administrator Matt McGowan and one of Admin’s five lawyers, Craig Newton, along with the Fair Work Commission (FWC)’s Murray Furlong, who oversees Administration, have informed the delegate that “reasonable criticism of Admin is not unlawful” but “challenging Admin’s authority is”.
Admin is trying it on to say that “shedding up” is “obstruction”.
“Obstructing the Administrator” carries a $187,000 fine and a possible two-year jail term. This law was designed to intimidate all 270 former elected officials of the CFMEU nationally to hand over the assets of the union.
It deemed those officials to be “removed” persons. Since then it has been used to remove state branch organisers.
Prosecuting and convicting a CFMEU delegate under this Admin law will be difficult. And Admin knows this. For these two reasons, Admin has never tested the “obstruction” law.
Labelling “shedding up” as “obstruction” is an attempt to intimidate CFMEU delegates and members who remain opposed to Admin.
So far the delegate has refused to meet Newton and McGowan, who also doubles as the Victorian Executive Officer (EO) under Admin.
Solidarity was informed by sacked former Joint EO Nigel Davies that McGowan is on $450,000 a year, paid out of CFMEU members’ dues, which have gone up to $20 per week.
The receipts the CFMEU issues to members for dues no longer read “CFMEU Vic” but rather “CFMEU National (Vic)” indicating Admin’s plans to “nationalise” the union continue apace.
Deregistration?
Admin continues to claim that the CFMEU faces deregistration if CFMEU members don’t accept Admin.
McGowan used the lie at the Victorian delegates’ meeting in early May.
An Admin-appointed co-ordinator repeated it in late May at the Victorian branch meeting.
It’s the same lie that disgraced former National Secretary and Admin appointee Zach Smith repeated to members in late 2025.
From the beginning of the process of putting the CFMEU into Admin in July 2024, Labor’s Workplace Relations Ministers Tony Burke, Murray Watt and Amanda Rishworth have all repeatedly rejected deregistration.
Deregistration could see the sacked former CFMEU leaders regain control of the union and would allow it to operate outside the control of the FWC.
Admin is simply scaremongering to try to force CFMEU members and delegates to accept its control.
Admin tells different things to different state branches. A CFMEU source from outside Victoria told Solidarity, “They have to get their bullshit straight. Here they say that deregistration won’t happen but a worse form of Admin would be put in place.”
State branches
In late May, the new Administrator, Michael Crosby, moved Travis Hera-Singh, the Admin-appointed South Australian EO, to the National Office in Melbourne.
Crosby and Hera-Singh both worked for the United Workers Union (UWU).
Crosby told the media Hera-Singh “will move to the union’s National Office for a senior union organising position”. He is creating a totally new position for him.
This is another manoeuvre that suggests an effort to expand the union’s National Office in an effort to centralise control of the union there.
NSW membership appears to be in freefall. Before Admin the branch had about 20,000 members, dropping to 14,900 members in March 2025, according to the Financial Review.
NSW membership is now reportedly just 9000. That is a fall of over 50 per cent since Admin began.
NSW builders have sensed a weakened CFMEU and are now running down safety.
It appears that NSW Admin is trying to make themselves relevant in response to this through staging safety inspections and stoppages.
On 8 May the union stopped work at several major Lendlease sites using safety laws.
NSW EO Karma Lord, on $310,000 a year, made a bland media statement saying that, “The sites were shut by mutual agreement and the company and the union are meeting on Monday.”
In late May, NSW organisers also stopped work by subcontractor Buildup Interiors at several sites across Sydney.
Lord told the media, “After receiving complaints from workers, officials lawfully entered sites with permits and identified breaches of safe work method statements. When notified, builders stopped impacted work to comply with regulatory requirements.”
But simply working within the industrial laws will not be enough to stand up for safety on sites.
CFMEU members and delegates need to create their own networks to lead and drive rank-and-file actions independently of Admin on sites, and to re-build the culture of militant unionism that the Labor government wants to break.
By Tom Orsag
