Tensions between Queensland Labor’s bitter factional rivals briefly boiled over at the party’s state conference on Sunday after the Right faction protested against a motion calling for the end to laws allowing the CFMEU to be controlled under administration.
The motion, which passed on the conference floor in Brisbane, was largely benign, given it specifies that the laws be repealed once the scandal-plagued union’s administration ends – a move already planned to take effect.
But the symbolic move infuriated Right faction delegates, whose primary union, the Australian Workers’ Union, has long feuded with the CFMEU during an aggressive turf war over major construction projects in Queensland.
AWU delegates staged a walkout to loud jeers when Left-aligned Electrical Trades Union boss Peter Ong introduced the resolution, which called on the Albanese government to “return democratic control as soon as possible following the administration”.
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Ong blasted the Right as “juveniles” over the walkout.
“The administration legislation removed the fundamentals of our judicial system – the presumption of innocence, a fair trial and natural justice,” the ETU boss told the conference.
“Democratically elected officials were forced to resign or be removed and ruled ineligible persons for future union roles.
“The precedence created by this forced administration can be weaponised against all unions, and is something that all union leaders should be concerned about.”