QCU head Jacqueline King takes stand as witness as Queensland probe holds second hearing block

Queensland CFMEU official Michael Ravbar threatened to “go nuclear” over a bill that would block the embattled union from accessing unauthorized work sites, the inquiry was told yesterday.

Peak body Queensland Council of Trade Unions claimed the CFMEU was pressuring it to indefinitely delay the proposed amendment as part of a deal mooted for 2024.

QCU general secretary Jacqueline King told an inquiry into abuses in Queensland’s construction industry that the deal was first suggested by former CFMEU official Jade Ingham.

King said Ingham had suggested he replace strongman Michael Ravbar as boss of the Queensland branch if the bill was delayed.

Ingham suggested that the CFMEU would later return as a member of the QCU and rejoin Labour’s left wing.

King said Ingham told him the alternative was Ravbar “otherwise it would go nuclear.”

“He used the word nuclear,” he told the inquest.

The CFMEU previously severed ties with QCU in 2017 following a split over the Workplace Health and Safety review of industrial manslaughter laws.

When asked by KC what “nuclear” meant, King said Ingham told Ravbar “he had the printing presses ready to launch a campaign against the government”, said Mark Costello, the lawyer assisting the investigation.

The amendment bill, passed a few weeks later, was the result of the CFMEU’s Workplace Health and Safety review, which closed the ability to use sections of the law to gain access to construction sites without permission.

After the bill was passed, the CFMEU stepped up industrial action at construction sites around Brisbane, including the major Centenary Bridge and Cross River Rail projects, from May 2024.

AAP