AWU boss Stacey Schinnerl back on the stand in Queensland

Australian Workers Union state secretary Stacey Schinnerl will return to the stand today at the Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU after revealing yesterday she feared for her life after receiving death threats from the rival union.

The two unions had long feuded but Schinnerl told the inquiry she suspected the CFMEU leaders had sensed an opportunity to push the AWU off major projects after it elected her – the major union’s first female leader in Queensland.

“Perhaps a female [AWU] leader would be easy to roll. With enough pressure applied, I might just give up and give it to them,” she said.

Loading

Schinnerl had also outlined various events of aggressive threats and intimidation directed at her union colleagues. At one occasion, an AWU figure was told to pass on a message to her – “if I stick my head up it will get knocked off”.

“I took that to be a threat on my life,” Schinnerl said.

In her written witness statement, Schinnerl revealed herself to be the union official described in CFMEU administration investigator Geoffrey Watson’s report as having experienced aggressive behaviour at a 2023 Labour Day event in Brisbane.

Schinnerl told of being confronted by a man in a CFMEU shirt with his face painted with the words “Australia’s Worst Union”.

The man tried to provoke a response and Schinnerl’s efforts to get him to leave left the pair “chest to chest”. He then turned to one of her 13-year-old sons standing beside her and said: “How does it feel to know that your mum is a f—in’ grub who sells out workers?”

During the interaction, the AWU leader said she pleaded with the man, saying: “This is my child. Do not do this here. Leave.”