CFMEU inquiry: AWU boss takes the stand as Queensland probe holds second hearing block

You can watch today’s CFMEU hearing live below.

Australian Workers Union state secretary Stacey Schinnerl is walked through other elements of her witness statement.

She describes the CFMEU’s “stickering” campaign of Labour Day march routes and cars, with counsel assisting Patrick Wheelehan getting Schinnerl to hold up examples.

“I realise how ludicrous this is,” she remarks when standing to show an A2 version of an anti-AWU sticker.

Wheelahan then asks Schinnerl about her evidence about being followed by a car while exiting a shopping centre with one of her children in her AWU-branded car.

While the vehicle and driver had no obvious CFMEU marking, Schinnerl says she and other AWU officials had also been followed on the road in their union branded cars, so she considered it was likely related to the CFMEU campaign.

Wrapping up now, Wheelahan tells the inquiry he expects Schinnerl will continue to give evidence until at least lunch tomorrow before any potential cross-examination from counsel for the CFMEU administrations, and ousted union leaders Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham.

That’s a wrap on today’s news. We will continue with another coverage of the inquiry tomorrow.

Commissioner Stuart Wood suggests the inquiry will consider asking police to investigate two CFMEU officials captured on CCTV accessing an Australian Workers Union car park in early 2023.

AWU state secretary Stacey Schinnerl is telling the inquiry details about the incident, included in CFMEU administration investigator Geoffrey Watson’s report without identifying those responsible.

The footage, played for the inquiry, shows the pair which Schinnerl earlier identified as Dean Mattas and Matt Clark, also known as Matt Parfitt, inside the pass-secured Brisbane car park placing “Australia’s Weakest Union” stickers on an AWU car.

Schinnerl says the incident is an example of childish behaviour, but in hindsight and in connection with other incidents had taken on a more “sinister message” for her: “We know where you are and are coming for you.”

Counsel assisting Patrick Wheelahan asks Schinnerl about the cumulative effect of these messages. Schinnerl says there were multiple instances where she felt in genuine danger and lived in a “perpetual heightened state of anxiety” in fear of herself and her children.

Schinnerl is pressed on whether this was reported to police, and says she is not sure. She notes that “rightly or wrongly” there was a code among unions that you did not rat on your mates, though she believes she should have “probably” made a complaint.

Wood asks Wheelahan to consider what powers the inquiry has to provide details of the car park incident to police.

The inquiry is now hearing about the difficulties Australian Workers Union state secretary Stacey Schinnerl faced accessing the Centenary Bridge upgrade project.

It is May 2024, and amid the background of rising tension between the AWU and CFMEU, Schinnerl said project contractor BMD’s Queensland general manager Robert Pickard called her.

Word had got out that Schinnerl was going to be visiting the site, and Pickard said he could not guarantee her safety if she did.

Schinnerl decided not to attend.

Counsel assisting Patrick Wheelahan asked Schinnerl how she is meant to do her job when she could not access sites, which Schinnerl responded that it was “challenging” and “pretty outrageous” that the senior-most official of the principal union on a civil construction site could not set foot on it.

We’ve all filed back into the room after lunch and counsel assisting Patrick Wheelahan is picking up where he left off with questions to Australian Workers Union state secretary Stacey Schinnerl.

Schinnerl is describing how “low-level harassment” of AWU members by the CFMEU, including site meetings being interrupted and derogatory comments, escalated since about 2020.

This then escalated from 2023 to “more concerning behaviours”, including AWU officials being followed and verbally abused after they left worksites.

AWU members had also reported being threatened they would lose their CPB jobs on the Cross River Rail project if they did not resign from the AWU and join CFMEU.

Asked by Wheelahan if the inference was the CFMEU official had the power to exert that influence, Schinnerl says: “I believe that was the intention of the threat”.

Counsel assisting Patrick Wheelahan is now asking Australian Workers Union state secretary Stacey Schinnerl to walk through some of the specifics of her organisation’s coverage of workers.

Schinnerl said the Queensland branch of the AWU has the ability to represent the broadest scope of workers of any union in the country, but this inquiry is focused on the civil construction element of that.

“Civil construction is the horizontal aspect of construction,” Schinnerl said, such as roads, rail, dams. “As opposed to what we would describe as building or commercial construction, which is up”.

Schinnerl says her union rules as the principle civil construction union allow the AWU to represent every single worker on a civil construction site, while a union such as the CFMEU can only cover workers in specific occupations.

She uses a metaphor of a road that might require 100 workers to build. While the AWU can legally represent all of them, the CFMEU or other unions may only be able to represent workers in roles such as crane and excavator gardens, or carpenters.

“Last time I checked, you can’t build a road with crane drivers and carpenters,” Schinnerl said.