Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKenzie for her question. Just last week, the CFMEU and its officials were found to have broken the law in the 2012 blockade of the Melbourne Grocon site. Victorian CFMEU Secretary Setka led the way. He ambushed the Grocon worker, punched the windscreen of his van, told him he would come after him and that he hoped he would die from his cancer. He also shoved a security manager down a laneway and, when the worker protested, threatened to shut him up permanently.

Law-breaking is nothing new for Setka. On separate occasions he has been found guilty of assaulting police, violence against workers, threatening behaviour, intimidation, indecent language and wilful trespass. He has been convicted or fined for 40 offences and sentenced to jail twice. He was jailed for breaking into a worksite where he was banned, punching and kicking an employee, threatening another with a steel bar and throwing liquid at a security guard. All this from a person who professes you need him to ensure workplace safety!

He was convicted of threatening a manager who was planning to give evidence against him in a tribunal. Now there is a reason to keep the compulsory powers. He was also fined for threatening behaviour and charged for obstruction and intimidation of a Commonwealth official. He demanded a worker be kicked off a work site because he was related to a manager Setka hated, saying, 'I'm gonna rip his head off and bury it next to Ned Kelly.' All this from a man who has a 20-year friendship with the underworld's Mick Gatto, whom he calls 'a good man'.