Senators raise concerns over Cbus close ties with CFMEU

Two senators believe there are worrying implications from the affiliation of construction industry super fund Cbus with the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) as concerning revelations emerge around the union’s alleged criminal ties.

Earlier this week, various Australian media outlets reported allegations and footage of kickbacks, thuggery, and links to organised crime by the CFMEU. Subsequently, an independent process to investigate the allegations was confirmed by union national secretary Zach Smith.

Addressing the investigation in an interview with ABC Radio on Monday, Prime Minister Albanese Albanese called on the union to “clean up their act” and said the revelations “need to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”

There are presently at least three CFMEU representatives, including the president of the union’s NSW divisional branch and its national construction secretary, who hold the position of member directors on the board of Cbus.

One Nation senator Pauline Hanson has said it is “unacceptable” that CFMEU officials sit on boards responsible for Australians’ life savings.

“Why are foxes being allowed to sit in charge of the henhouse?” Senator Hanson said in a statement on Tuesday, adding this is a “racket” enabled by Labor to enrich union bosses with “taxpayer-guaranteed returns.”

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg went a step further, calling for Cbus, which has committed up to half a billion dollars to support the construction of affordable housing through Labor’s Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), to be entirely axed from the project.

In a statement on Tuesday, he noted the CFMEU will play a key role in the HAFF and that the union, alongside Cbus, “intend to finalise organisational and funding arrangements under the HAFF.”

“The HAFF should not be doing business with a disgraced union and their affiliate super fund,” Bragg said.

He also raised concerns about the involvement of Wayne Swan, Cbus chair and federal president of the Labor Party, in the HAFF, saying that he has been “heavily involved” in the matter.

“In November 2022, Mr Swan committed $500 million of Cbus to Labor’s HAFF. This is despite them telling the Treasury that the design of the HAFF in the exposure draft of the Bill would ‘jeopardise our ability as institutional investors to get involved,” Bragg said.

A subsequent freedom of information inquiry, which was “heavily redacted”, revealed Cbus had been in contact with the Treasurer’s office the day before this funding announcement, Bragg said.

“It is very murky. We cannot have bikies and underworld figures involved in a government agency like the HAFF,” Bragg said.

“I call on the Housing Minister, Julie Collins, to show leadership and maintain integrity over taxpayer funds by banning Cbus from any involvement in the HAFF.”

The senator also urged the prudential regulator to look into payments made by the super fund to the CFMEU, as per its financial year 2022–23 disclosures, according to him, the payment amount was $1.25 million.

Speaking on 2GB radio on Tuesday, Bragg said “no one knows” what this payment was for. 

“I mean, ostensibly, it’s for sponsorship. It could be for director’s fees. It’s a bit of a mystery,” Bragg said. 

“But the point really here is that we shouldn’t have a system where people’s retirement savings are being used for political purposes, certainly not for purposes like supporting thuggish behaviour, bikies and organised crime. And that’s what I think is happening. I think there are a few things that fall out of it, but ultimately, the point is that people’s hard-earned money is being used to underpin Mafia-like behaviour.”

Super Review reached out to Cbus for comment on the CFMEU, but the fund indicated it has nothing it can add.