The links between the criminally tarnished CFMEU and the popular Cbus superannuation fund – with almost a million members – is sounding alarm bells in Canberra.
The Construction Forestry Maritime Employees Union is battling allegations of corruption, criminal ties, bikie office holders and thuggery, yet still has strong links to Cbus, and the Albanese government’s $10billion social housing plans.
Cbus, which has 930,000 Australian members and $94 billion under management, has three board members with close ties to the CFMEU.
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, an Opposition frontbencher, said that alone should be cause for concern for members.
‘We shouldn’t have a system where people’s retirement savings is being used for political purposes, certainly not for purposes like supporting thuggish behaviour, bikies, organised crime, and that’s what I think is happening,’ he said.
‘People’s hard-earned money is being used to underpin Mafia-like behaviour.’
Cbus also has a stake in the Albanese government’s Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) which plans to build 30,000 homes in five years to address the country’s home shortage.
Cbus, with its strong CFMEU influence and run by former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan, has already committed $500million of members’ funds to investing in the HAFF.
However the scandal has now prompted calls for Cbus to be locked out of the social housing fund entirely, jeopardising its investment strategy.
‘The Labor government in Canberra is trying to get the Cbus super fund to help them with the housing crisis,’ Senator Bragg told Sydney radio 2GB broadcaster Chris O’Keefe on Tuesday.
‘Labor is making housing worse because all their solutions are how they can send more money off to the vested interests at the unions rather than build more houses.
‘The organisation’s been ostracised from the labour movement but they’re still okay to apparently help the government on housing – it stinks.’
Senator Bragg argued Cbus was conflicted because it would be charging higher building costs in constructing the public homes, costing taxpayers and reducing the profits of members.
‘These are the people trying to bugger it up – they’re the people making it more expensive to do construction in Australia,’ he said.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has also questioned why the CFMEU is permitted to have such strong involvement that will determine the retirement savings of almost a million Australians.
‘Why are foxes being allowed to sit in charge of the henhouse?’ she said in a statement on Tuesday, describing the situation as a ‘racket’ to enrich unions with ‘taxpayer-guaranteed returns’.
Australia’s embattled construction union is also behind one of the nation’s largest industry super funds and its property development arm is a major player with Labor’s multi-billion dollar social housing plans (pictured is former Victorian secretary John Setka)
Labor leaders around Australia are now distancing themselves from the CFMEU, after John Setka quit as Victorian secretary following reports bikies had been recruited as health and safety officials.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke on Wednesday announced the CFMEU’s construction division would be placed into independent administration but he stopped short of pushing for the union to be deregistered like the Builders Labourers Federation was in 1986.
That means the Fair Work Commission will have government support to take over the CFMEU.
‘The number one job of any union and its officials is to look after its members,’ Mr Burke said.
‘The reported behaviour from the construction division of the CFMEU is the complete opposite of this. It is abhorrent and it is intolerable.’
The CFMEU last month won a 21 per cent pay rise over four years for its Victorian members.
Mr Swan’s deputy chair Rita Mallia is president of the CFMEU’s New South Wales branch.
The CFMEU is a key shareholder in Cbus, a superannuation fund with 930,000 members and $94billion under management, and has key construction union members on its board
The Cbus board also has prominent CFMEU members including former national construction secretary Dave Noonan (pictured) and the union’s former Australian Capital Territory boss Jason O’Mara who was previously accused of threatening to run businesses out of town
The Cbus board also has prominent CFMEU members including former national construction secretary Dave Noonan and the union’s former Australian Capital Territory boss Jason O’Mara, who was previously accused of threatening to run businesses out of town.
In another twist, Cbus board member Denita Wawn, who is also chief executive of Master Builders Australia, has called for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate the CFMEU.
The employer representative on the Cbus board told Daily Mail Australia putting the CFMEU’s national office in charge of the Victorian branch was a weak response.
‘A self-appointed internal investigation simply won’t cut it,’ she said.
‘We need to see fully resourced ACCC and FWO investigations alongside an interstate police strike force.’
The CFMEU’s Victorian branch is now in administration, under the control of the national office, but its website promotes Cbus.
The super fund’s wholly-owned development arm Cbus Property built 1 William Street in Brisbane where Queensland government ministers now have their offices.
Despite its Labor connections, Queensland’s former Liberal National Party government led by Campbell Newman gave Cbus the $653million tender in 2012, with the 260-metre high tower opening in October 2016.
Cbus delivered strong returns for its members in 2023-24 with SuperRatings data showing balanced option funds had 11.4 per cent growth, which was better than the industry average of 8.8 per cent.
It was initially known as the Building Unions Superannuation Scheme when it was formed in 1984.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Cbus and Mr Burke for comment on Senator Bragg’s assertions.