CFMEU administrator Mark Irving resigns after launching probe into former union boss Zach Smith over conduct with women
Mark Irving, the senior lawyer tasked with cleaning up the corruption and crime-ridden CFMEU, has resigned in a major defiance of the Albanian government’s attempts to clean up the sector.
His departure comes two months after his former deputy national secretary, Zach Smith, launched an internal investigation into his treatment of two women; His sudden resignation from the CFMEU himself in January came amid serious revelations from two women.
Irving’s resignation as director is the most serious challenge facing Labour’s plan to reform the scandal-plagued union, as it fends off opposition calls to deregister the CFMEU or set up a royal commission, including over the union’s abuse of power over taxpayer-funded construction sites across the country.
The separate departures of Irving and Smith leave the Albanian government and the ACTU without the two men they hand-picked to pull one of Australia’s most powerful unions out of the swamp of corruption, and entrenched organized crime in the construction industry continues to fester, including recent firebombings targeting major construction firms in NSW and Victoria.
In a coup for CFMEU reformists, respected union boss Michael Crosby agreed to step into Irving’s national role immediately. Crosby spent months aggressively clearing out the CFMEU branch in NSW, formerly run by jailed briber Darren Greenfield, while also publicly calling out suspected organized criminals on government projects.
The Queensland CFMEU commission of inquiry is still generating damaging headlines about the union’s behavior in that state, including last week’s revelation that a state minister threatened to tear up a $1.5 billion contract on a federally funded road project if a company failed to make peace with the union.
Crosby will now try to finish what Irving sought but ultimately failed to do: reform the CFMEU’s most powerful and troubled branch in Victoria.
This imprint spoke to six CFMEU sources with knowledge of the resignations, internal investigations and riots to tell this story. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
In a sign of the problems still facing the Victorian branch, the higher education union’s former national secretary Matt McGowan was also immediately appointed head of the CFMEU’s Melbourne headquarters, replacing senior CFMEU figure Nigel Davies. Davies’ previous leadership role was supported by CFMEU veterans Lisa Zanatta and Gerry Ayers.
Like Crosby, McGowan has had a unionist career but is outside the construction industry and, given the latter, is likely to face hostility from CFMEU figures from the ousted regime who are still loyal to former secretary John Setka.
McGowan becomes the fourth unionist appointed to run the CFMEU’s Victorian branch after the Albanian government placed the union into administration in August 2024. Graeme McCulloch was in charge for just a few weeks, Smith resigned after 18 months and Davies left after just over three months.
In NSW, Crosby’s job will be filled by Karma Lord.
Irving’s departure has been on the agenda for a long time. He had suffered two heart attacks since his appointment, was living under full-time security protection after a credible threat to his safety, and was trying to implement major reforms to eliminate organized crime from the union and reduce the influence of rotten unionists in the Setka-era regime.
Irving was criticized internally for overworking or delaying some important decisions (a problem caused by his poor health) and for placing too much trust in Smith despite the younger man’s missteps.
Late last year, Irving sided with Smith after he ordered a union organizer to meet gang leader Mick Gatto in a park over a labor dispute.
Smith again sided with him after he promoted two unionists long suspected of corruption, including John Perkovic, who was suspected of taking bribes.
But Irving also acted quickly when allegations of serious impropriety reached his desk. When that imprint exposed Perkovic’s allegations of corruption, Irving fired him and called in federal police to investigate.
After the Gatto park meeting was revealed in this byline, Irving overhauled union policy to remove Gatto from the construction industry.
After this byline revealed that Irving had asked for controversial but politically explosive allegations to be removed from a major report by corruption hunter Geoffrey Watson, Irving responded by immediately publishing the controversial material.
Watson’s findings on the estimated $15 billion cost of the Victorian Labor government’s indifference to serious corruption caused a firestorm that still haunts the ALP.
Sources said Irving’s most significant contribution was leading Smith and other union leaders to oust dozens of CFMEU staff and organizers in a once-in-a-generation purge; While this led to unrest and leadership instability, it may have given the union its best chance of avoiding deregistration.
Sources insist an exhausted Irving planned to resign well before the public announcement on Feb. 13, one of his final acts as manager; this announcement was “investigating allegations made against a former union official”.
