What Kevin Bacon is to other actors, John Setka is to, well, any topic you could name. In the final sitting week of Parliament before the winter break, there was no issue that could not be linked to the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union’s Victorian secretary. Setka told a workers’ rally in Melbourne on Tuesday that the union was going to “expose” inspectors from the Australian Building and Construction Commission:
“We will lobby their neighbourhoods. We will tell them who lives in that house. What he does for a living, or she … They will not be able to show their faces anywhere. Their kids will be ashamed of who their parents are when we expose all these ABCC inspectors.”
Beyond a repudiation from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and others, Labor was not that keen to discuss Setka’s statements during question time on Wednesday and Thursday. But the Coalition clearly thought he was an important topic of conversation and engaged in some impressive verbal gymnastics to get to him.
In the Senate this was largely a direct journey. Employment Minister Michaelia Cash was asked several questions about Setka by curious Liberals. But the real fun came in the House of Representatives, when there wasn’t a topic from either side whose answer was not Setka. Here’s a selection of our favorites:
Topic: Schools
Question from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten
The Prime Minister’s schools policy is marked by division, chaos and confusion …When will the Prime Minister simply withdraw this rushed legislation, go back to the drawing board and stop $22 billion worth of cuts to schools?
Answer from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
First of all: — We may well ask when the Leader of the Opposition will stop spreading falsehoods about $22 billion that he never had …
Which reminds me: I hear the member for Gorton calling out. He is interjecting. He says it is a joke.
Which obviously relates to: Let him speak up today and tell us how much of a joke or how humorous John Setka’s threats to track down ABCC inspectors, to threaten them with violence, were.
Topic: Australian Federal Police
Question from Liberal MP Scott Buchholz
Will the minister update the House on the government’s recent investments in our law enforcement agencies, and what are the threats to those agencies?
Answer from Minister for Justice Michael Keenan
First of all: In this year’s budget, the government has invested a further $321 million in the Australian Federal Police…
Which Reminds me: …no government is more committed to the Australian Federal Police than this one. But we have been reminded just yesterday that not everybody shares our commitment to the Australian Federal Police.
Which obviously relates to: Just yesterday the Victorian secretary of the CFMEU, John Setka, viciously attacked the men and women of the Australian Federal Police.
Topic: Penalty Rates
Question from Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen
Prime Minister, in just 10 days’ time, nearly 700,000 Australians will have their penalty rates cut, while millionaires will get a tax cut. Given real wages are going backwards, will the Prime Minister use what is left of this parliamentary sitting week to stop millionaires getting their tax cut and stop ordinary workers getting their pay cut?
Answer from Malcolm Turnbull
First of all: Every element of our program is designed to ensure that there is stronger economic growth and more jobs …
Which Reminds me: One of the things we know is that, in Australia, we stand by the rule of law. We know that the rule of law protects the great and the small. It protects the small businesses.
Which obviously relates to: Labor, on the other hand, is out there taking money and providing letters of endorsement, Leader of the Opposition, to the CFMEU’s rally yesterday in which John Setka, one of the Leader of the Opposition’s major benefactors — indeed, one of his controllers — threatened to follow, track and bully ABCC inspectors.
Topic: Agriculture
Question from Nationals MP Kevin Hogan
Will the Deputy Prime Minister explain to the House how the government’s achievements support hardworking Australians in the agricultural sector? Is the minister aware of any threats to the sector’s ongoing success?
Answer From Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce
First of all: We have had so much to celebrate in the agricultural sector since we have been the government. This sector, on the last GDP figures, is the fastest-growing sector in our nation.
Which Reminds me: You asked what the threats are. I can tell you what a threat sounds like.
Which obviously relates to: A threat sounds like this — and I quote John Setka: “Let me give a dire warning to the ABCC inspectors: be careful what you do …”
Topic: Asylum seekers
Question from Liberal MP Ross Vasta
Will the minister update the House on the importance of strong and consistent border protection measures? What are the risks associated with alternative approaches?
Answer from Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton
First of all: It is the case, as all Australians know, that this government is absolutely resolute when it comes to border protection policies…
Which reminds me: … this Leader of the Opposition has tried to fool the Australian public into believing that they actually have in the Labor Party the same resolve to stop boats and put the people smugglers out of business that we do. But we know it is not the case.
Which obviously relates to: We have seen in the headlines of The Australian newspaper and elsewhere over the course of the last couple of days that John Setka from the Victorian branch of the CFMEU is a great friend of the Leader of the Opposition …
But why take all that time, when you can just cut straight to the chase? When Labor’s Warren Snowden asked about Turnbull’s “secret hit list”of schools that would receive cuts under Gonski 2.0, Turnbull didn’t pivot toward Setka as much as charge: “The only hit list that honourable members opposite should be concerned about is John Setka’s hit list, and that includes hardworking public servants …”
But the reason for the beat-up over Setka’s comments was clear. After an extended period, the ABCC has quietly conceded that its website and other advices on union rep access were incorrect, in face of union court action. It has settled the action and changed the advice.
Apparently, giving false advice to the public about access by union reps is not a problem: if it is partisan anti-worker advice. Saying that partisan operatives should be shamed is a problem: but only if the partisans are anti-worker.
This man John Setka is an insult to the union movement and a disgrace to human nature. It is time that the Labor party censored him or expelled him from the party. I was a union rep. all my working life and I fail to see how this sort of behavior is good for the union or the work force in general
How would you expect union reps to behave? Wages have flatlined, Politicians, the mainstream media, in fact nearly everyone insults unions and even the idea of a collective voice for us workers. Someone has to stand up and start agitating or else you can say goodbye to Australia. We’re heading for recession, mainly because this stupid government is stripping money from workers and the poor and putting it in the pockets of multinationals who spend that money offshore.
BTW, I’ve been a proud union member nearly all my working life, which is just about over.
We’re lost unless we agitate and start seriously fighting for our rights. A union is only as powerful as its members, and its members are the ones who vote for their leaders. Are you blaming the CFMEU workers for the leader they’ve chosen?
I expect, Zeke, union reps to behave within the law. Times when bosses used thugs and police to get their own way, often with violence, often with impunity, are gone. I’m sure there are bosses who still use heavies to do their dirty work, but not with impunity. And thats the difference. Mostly deals are worked out legally. Union reps should work smarter, use the legal system and persuasive argument to get their way. There are reasons unions are losing membership. The days when threats and violence won the day are over for both sides.
I have read the comments by the unionist under siege here.
As far as I can tell, he ‘threatened’ to expose the people who are involved in carrying out their ABCC work under BAD LAW.
There is no violence or threat of violence in naming names…you should all get a grip!!
Oh come on CML. We know the CFMEU aren’t a bunch of docile individuals. Why release names and addresses to fired up, angry unionists if he doesn’t expect intimidation or violence.
I think you will find that Setka said he would name names of ABCC inspectors in their communities…so that those living around them would know what they do.
That is a long way from what you think he said…and a long way from inciting violence.
But its a good trick for union bashing!
And a few burly blokes with placards might just ‘innocently’ stand outside their private homes ‘informing’ their neighbours who lives there and what they do? That wouldn’t scare or intimidate the wives and children at all would it?
Very courageous of this government – when this sort of crap sprays both ways, with the wind.
(Imagine an imam making these sort of overtures of Setka’s?)
I seem to recall that the Name & Shame strategy landed a certain Senator in court a couple of times, prior to landing on the red leather benches.
Wasn’t that for contempt?