Watson told the inquiry he suspected the Queensland branch of the CFMEU aimed to emulate notorious former Victorian union boss John Setka, who seized power and froze out rival construction union, the Australian Workers’ Union, on big tunnel, rail and bridge infrastructure projects.
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This turf war mentality was clearly adopted by former Queensland-based CFMEU leaders Ingham and Michael Ravbar, according to Watson.
“I really do look at what had happened here in Queensland is that people in leadership positions had seen what had happened in Victoria,” he told the inquiry.
“What had happened was Setka had pushed the AWU off all of the civil work … now how did they do that? They terrified the contractors.
“Now I am 100 per cent confident that the people in Queensland, Mr Ravbar, Mr Ingham, they’ve seen that success and said, ‘We can do the same thing.’
“And if you remember, a lot of the troubles really ramped up in Queensland around the time that you had massive infrastructure projects, which is tunnels, railways, things which normally fall within the jurisdiction of the AWU.”
Watson said the CFMEU’s reputation as a feared organisation that disregarded the law was a deliberate strategy it “revelled” in.
“They wanted the reputation of being outlaws and taking themselves outside the law and willing to do what was necessary to acquire more power,” he told the inquiry.
“This actually was their business model, their business model was to be feared by everybody – ‘if you negotiate with us, do not think for a second we’re going to obey the law. We will act outside the law.’
“Everybody knew, and by this I do mean people like for example the AWU or the contractors, that if they were stopping a concrete pour today, they’ll do it again tomorrow.”
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