Does anyone think SETKA wasn't threatening ABCC inspectors
Friday, 25 August 2017
We live in fantasy land - where Turnbull gets positive headlines for new laws that will never be enforced.
It's not new laws we need, it's moral clarity, courage and determination.
Turnbull is lacking on all counts.
A fish rots from the head.
Gillard set the process in train.
Turnbull is determined to see her mission through.
AFP won’t investigate CFMEU Victorian boss John Setka
- The Australian
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The Australian Federal Police has announced it will not investigate Victorian construction union leader John Setka over alleged threats made against ABCC inspectors at a Melbourne rally in June.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash referred the comments to the AFP in June, telling police they were “threatening and menacing in nature”.
“AFP has evaluated the matter and has determined there is insufficient evidence to proceed to investigation,” an AFP spokesman told The Australian tonight.
At the rally, Mr Setka threatened to reveal the home addresses of Australian Building and Construction Commission inspectors, and lobby their local shopping centres and football clubs to ensure their “kids will be ashamed of who their parents are”.
“Let me give a dire warning to the ABCC inspectors: be careful what you do,’’ he said, claiming that many did not have their names on the electoral roll.
“They have got to lead these secret little lives because they are ashamed of what they do. You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to expose them all.
“We will lobby their neighbourhoods. We will tell them who lives in that house. What he does for a living, or she. We will go to their local football club. We will go to the local shopping centre.
“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.”
Declaring the CFMEU “out of control”, Senator Cash announced she would refer the comments to police “given her concern about the threats to the safety of government staff”.
After three days of controversy, Mr Setka made a qualified apology saying the “the speech was made in the heat of the moment and reflects what’s really going on across the country under this anti-worker government’’.
“But as a family man and father of three beautiful children, if my comments were taken out of context or if they came across in a manner that was threatening, then I truly apologise.”
A CFMEU spokesman said tonight that the AFP’s decision was “welcome and expected”.
“Perhaps now it’s time Minister Cash stops trying to use the AFP to pursue her political enemies and focus on the safety and conditions of workers,’’ he said.