💥 When Democracy Is Put Into Administration
The CFMEU just lost its High Court fight. But the story isn’t over.
🛠️ It started with allegations - bikie infiltration, bullying, corruption. The kind of headlines that make everyone clutch their pearls and say: shut it down. And so they did.
In 2024, the federal government rewrote the rules and placed the Construction and General Division of the CFMEU into administration. Just like that.
270 officers gone.
Volunteers, too.
No election. No member vote. Just legislation and force.
The union fought it all the way to the High Court, arguing it was an attack on democracy, on political freedom, on the very idea that a union is supposed to be run by its members.
Today, the High Court said: No.
The intervention stands.
🔍 What’s at Stake Isn’t Just the CFMEU
It’s easy to distance yourself from this - oh, that union, those bikies, that chaos.
But when you strip it back, this is about something deeper.
It’s about what kind of democracy we allow within our institutions, and how far the state can go when it wants to clean house.
What happens when the government decides it no longer trusts a member-led body to govern itself?
The public was told this was necessary. That this was about protecting workers. That this was about “returning the union to the members.”
But you can’t return something that’s been removed by force without asking first.
⚖️ The Uncomfortable Truth About “Cleaning Up”
Let’s be clear:
Yes, corruption must be tackled.
Yes, infiltration should be exposed.
Yes, union members deserve integrity.
But we cannot forget that volunteer organisers, many of them rank-and-file members, were swept up in this administrative purge.
We cannot ignore that democratic processes - the same ones unions demand in workplaces - were suspended in the name of reform.
And now, in the name of law and order, we’re being told this was all justified. Because “the system” says so.
🕰 We’ve Been Here Before
The state has always had a complicated relationship with powerful unions. Especially ones that don’t play nice. Especially ones that know how to organise.
This case, and this High Court decision, sets a precedent. It says that if the government thinks your organisation is out of control, it can step in. Rewrite the law. Strip your officers. And install an outsider to run the show.
That should make everyone who values self-governance and collective organising pay attention.
📣 In the Reckoning Room, We Don’t Look Away
We ask the hard questions:
Who decides when an institution is too broken to fix from within?
When does intervention become overreach?
And who gets to speak for the silenced volunteers now watching from the sidelines?
#TheReckoningRoom #CFMEU #UnionDemocracy #HighCourt #WorkerPower #VolunteerOrganisers #PoliticalOverreach #FairWorkAct #ReformOrControl #Australia