A rogue union’s operations have been likened to the Italian and Russian mafia amid explosive allegations a state workplace health and safety regulator was captured to further its objectives.
North Queensland Regional Director of Workplace Health and Safety Paul Smith told the Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU on Thursday former union boss Michael Ravbar had dictated to the regulator.
“We did everything that the CFMEU wanted,” he said during his second day of evidence to the inquiry, which is holding hearings in Cairns.
“Michael Ravbar called the tunes, and we danced to his tune.”
Smith said relations had improved since the CFMEU was placed into administration by the federal government in August 2024.
But he said that pointed to an earlier failure of leadership, castigating his own department for not standing up to the union.
“It just shows to me that it was a lack of leadership from the CFMEU, how they engaged in that behaviour,” Smith said.
“That was their tactic, that was their business plan. You know, they operated like the Italian Mafia and the Russian Mafia.
“They had a real confrontational approach.”
Smith described how the extent of state capture went to the top, recounting a conversation with former industrial relations minister Grace Grace in January 2023.
He told Grace the union expected Workplace Health and Safety to respond to trivial toilet complaints in the same way they would to a fatality.
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