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 blocked the embattled union’s access to worksites without permits, the inquiry was told yesterday.

Peak body Queensland Council of Unions has claimed the CFMEU pressured it to indefinitely delay the amendment bill as part of a mooted deal in 2024.

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

King said Ingham proposed that if the bill could be delayed, he would replace strongman Michael Ravbar as boss of the Queensland branch.

Ingham suggested the CFMEU would then return as a QCU affiliate and rejoin the Labor left faction.

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

“He used the word nuclear,” she told the inquiry.

The CFMEU had previously disaffiliated from the QCU in 2017 after a split over a Workplace Health and Safety review of industrial manslaughter laws.

Asked by counsel assisting the inquiry Mark Costello, KC, what “nuclear” meant, King said Ingham told her Ravbar “had the printing presses ready to go on a campaign against the government”.

The amendment bill – which passed a few weeks later – was the result of a Workplace Health and Safety review which closed off the CFMEU’s ability to use sections of the law to access worksites without permits.

After the bill passed, the CFMEU escalated industrial action on worksites around Brisbane, including major Centenary Bridge and Cross River Rail projects, from May 2024.

AAP