CFMEU boss quits Labor’s top committee after Coalition pressure

CFMEU boss Zach Smith has quit the Labor Party’s top executive committee but remains on a key government building advisory group as teal independent Allegra Spender demands the government overhaul its efforts to fix the scandal-plagued union.

The Coalition has ramped up pressure on Labor over Smith’s position amid continued revelations in this masthead of scandals and lawlessness in the construction union as government-appointed administrator Mark Irving, KC, struggles to turn the CFMEU around.

Even though the Labor Party cut ties with the union last year, Smith has continued to hold a position on Labor’s national executive and remains a member of Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth’s building industry advisory committee.

But Smith quietly resigned from the national executive a fortnight ago, he confirmed to this masthead on Thursday afternoon. He said he had not been attending meetings since the union was placed into administration, but acknowledged he had been sending a proxy in his place.

“I haven’t attended a meeting of the ALP national executive since the union was placed into administration, and I resigned recently to formalise this,” Smith said.

The unionist had been national secretary of the CFMEU and boss of its ACT branch before it went into administration in 2024. He was one of the few people kept on under the new regime, where he runs the powerful Victorian branch of the union.

Other members of Labor’s executive, who weren’t authorised to speak publicly, were surprised when they learned of Smith’s move on Thursday. There had been debates inside Labor about whether it was justifiable to totally exclude any CFMEU-linked person from party affairs, given that the party is built on trade unionism.

Smith had set up a meeting in September between one of his organisers and underworld figure-turned-industrial fixer Mick Gatto. Smith apologised for the Gatto meeting and Irving updated union policies to effectively bar further meetings.

Gatto has said he has always conducted his business lawfully. There is no suggestion Smith is one of the union figures subject to corruption allegations.

Opposition frontbencher Tim Wilson has argued the administrator was not up to the job and that Albanese was “tainted” by Smith’s role on the executive, which plays a key role in managing the party’s finances, campaigns and pre-selections.

A spokesman for Labor’s administrative wing declined to comment.

Spender, a teal MP for Sydney’s eastern suburbs, said the government must acknowledge that the union’s Labor-appointed administration was largely powerless to change the incentives in the building industry to weed criminals.

“The government was hoping it would go away with the administrator, and it is not,” Spender said in an interview.

Spender called for a taskforce joining police, industrial regulator Fair Work and government agencies to enforce the law and change culture in the sector, as well as a policy to withhold federal funding for major projects if it was benefiting criminal unions.

She said it was shameful to turn a blind eye to the thuggery and human suffering as if it were a natural part of the building sector. “It undermines the rule of law and the quality of our business environment. And then there’s a human price. It’s ... not how we run this country.”

The administrator’s office is populated by former Labor advisers, and Irving’s deputy is a close ally of ACTU boss Sally McManus.

Productivity in the construction sector, key to building houses and energy projects, has fallen 12 per cent over the past three decades and Spender said Treasurer Jim Chalmers needed to weed out corruption if the government was serious about kick-starting productivity and growth.

“I listen to the treasurer – I think he’s serious about trying to drive productivity. Then you’ve got to really go into this industry.”

Wilson, the opposition’s industrial relations spokesman, reacted to the news of Smith’s resignation by saying Albanese had “clearly panicked” and pushed him out.

“Rishworth is backing him as a key adviser. Did Rishworth not get the memo, or what does Smith have over Rishworth that he can keep his job?” Wilson said.

Rishworth defended Smith’s role on the advisory body in question time on Thursday.

“The national construction industry forum is playing an incredibly important role of bringing unions and employers and government together and how we tackle this issue,” she said.

“I make no apologies to actually bringing people together, to look at how we tackle these issues together. And I would invite the shadow minister to look at the taskforce report.

“Employers and unions are united in what work needs to be done to make sure our construction industry is as productive as possible.”

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.