Women and kids victimised in Queensland CFMEU's ‘culture of violence'
The building union's former leadership Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham oversaw a culture of abuse and harassment, which was 'eagerly executed' by some union organisers, some delegates and some rank-and-file members, the report alleged.
'The CFMEU has breached – deliberately breached – every aspect of its own anti-violence policy. The CFMEU in Queensland actually intended to inflict physical, sexual, emotional and economic abuse on others,' it said.
The 45-page report, published online on Wednesday evening with some names and details redacted, conveys the findings of a three-month investigation that its author, barrister Geoffrey Watson, said may only scratch the surface of violence in the union.
Ravbar and Ingham were invited to be interviewed or respond in writing to the investigation, but declined, including a specific request to respond to the claim about their role in the violence.
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Watson was directed by the administrator, Mark Irving, to investigate the Queensland branch of the union after revelations of corruption and bikie links along the east coast by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes.
Victims of the union's violence included a 13-year-old child whose mother, an official of the rival Australian Workers Union (AWU), was confronted at Labour Day celebrations in Brisbane in 2023.
'How does it feel to know that your mum is a f---in' grub who sells out workers?' the child was asked by a man wearing a CFMEU shirt.
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