🧱 The Reckoning Room
CFMEU Purge: Reckoning, Rebrand… or Just More Rot?
A construction hard hat and a courtroom gavel.
That’s the image we chose for this edition, and it’s not just symbolic.
Because right now, two tools of power are clashing: one built an industry, the other’s finally being used to clean it up.
Or so we’re told.
Over the last three weeks, more than a dozen CFMEU officials have either resigned, been sacked, or taken what’s being sold as “voluntary redundancies.” It’s part of the most significant purge the union has seen since it was placed into administration in August. Fifteen gone this month alone - nearly half the 32 removed so far.
It follows the High Court’s dismissal of a legal challenge from ousted officials, effectively rubber-stamping the Albanese government’s decision to install external control over Australia’s most powerful and controversial union.
The administrator, Mark Irving KC, isn’t pulling punches. After an explosive report by anti-corruption barrister Geoffrey Watson SC, detailing dozens of allegations of threats, violence, misogyny, and harassment, including targeting family members, Irving has promised: more will go.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t just internal politics.
This is a cultural reckoning, or at least, the performance of one.
A Movement at War With Itself
The purge has hit hardest in Queensland. Around six organisers, including a senior coordinator, have exited in just one week. NSW hasn’t escaped either: two officials resigned after being photographed meeting with a removed official from the old guard.
The message is clear: association with the past will cost you.
Even the Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) has broken ranks with the former CFMEU leadership. Secretary Jacqueline King didn’t mince words:
“They have completely let down the Queensland union movement…
We see you. We hear you.
And we are sorry.”
This is the closest thing to an unqualified apology we’ve seen from a union peak body in years, and it’s long overdue.
👏 But not everyone’s clapping.
Former Queensland Secretary Michael Ravbar and ex-president Jade Ingham have come out swinging, dismissing the Watson report as “riddled with errors” and accusing it of relying on “selective and untested accounts.”
“To reduce the union’s culture to two individuals is not only inaccurate, it ignores the hard work of countless members and officials,” Ravbar argued.
Classic deflection.
Yes, the union is complex. Yes, many gave their all. But the culture didn’t rot in isolation.
And when accountability is viewed as betrayal, the rot multiplies.
Enablers in High Places
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie had his own moment in the spotlight, accusing former Labor ministers of enabling the CFMEU:
“The Labor Party were driving the getaway car.”
Hyperbolic? Yes.
Politically convenient? Also yes.
But wrong? Not entirely.
Labor’s decades-long alliance with the CFMEU included industrial law changes, board appointments, and campaign donations. You can’t disown your enablers only when the heat turns up.
Even Federal Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth called the conduct “reprehensible,” saying the administration proved Labor would “hold officials to account.”
But let’s not rewrite history.
Labor didn’t lead this reckoning - Building Bad did.
The media exposed what the movement wouldn’t name.
And now, everyone’s scrambling to look like they’ve always cared.
Rebrand or Revolution?
The CFMEU’s culture of militancy has long been romanticised. But let’s tell the truth: some of that militancy wasn’t about justice - it was about control.
About keeping people in line.
About silencing the women, the workers, the unionists who dared question the boys’ club.
So ask yourself:
Is this purge the start of real reform?
Or is it just a calculated rebrand to protect political capital?
Paul Bidwell from Master Builders Queensland voiced a fear many share:
“Some of the delegates and coordinators were still loyal to the ousted leaders… If they’re gone, it clears the way.”
Sure.
But clears the way for what?
Unless the change is structural. Unless it includes internal protections, cultural shifts, and a real plan for inclusion - this is theatre.
✂️ A purge is not a plan.
🙏 An apology is not a repair.
💥 A rebrand is not a reckoning.
What Happens Next?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Some of the worst abuse in the movement came from inside the movement.
Not from bosses.
Not from conservative governments.
From the hands of those who claimed to represent us.
Real solidarity means naming that.
It means protecting the whistleblowers who were mocked and maligned for speaking the truth.
It means creating structures where power can’t be hoarded or weaponised.
The hard hat and the gavel are now side by side.
Let’s see who picks up which one next.
🧱 This is your Reckoning Room.
📬 Forward this to someone who still thinks the culture was overblown.
📸 Symbolic image included.
✍️ And yes, we see you.
We hear you.
We’re not going anywhere.