Is YOUR super with the CFMEU? How troubled union is a key shareholder in a high-profile fund with a million members – amid calls for it to be ditched from $10billion Housing Australia Future Fund
A Liberal party leader wants a giant industrial super fund backed by the controversial CFMEU to be scrapped from the Albanian government’s multi-billion dollar plans for social housing.
The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union is a major shareholder in Cbus, a leading sector pension fund with 930,000 members and $94 billion in assets under management. Its board includes key members of the construction union.
It is also the founder of Cbus Property, the property development arm of the super fund.
But after allegations that bikers are acting like union officials, opposition party Andrew Bragg has questioned why Cbus is being allowed to be part of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund.
Union leaders across Australia are now distancing themselves from the CFMEU after John Setka resigned as Victoria secretary amid rumours that bikers had been recruited as health and safety officers.
Employment and Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke announced on Wednesday that the CFMEU’s construction division would be placed under independent administration, but stopped short of pushing for the union to deregister.
This means that the Fair Work Commission will take over the CFMEU with government support.
“The most important job of any union and its leaders is to take care of its members,” Burke said.
‘The reported behaviour of the CFMEU construction department is the complete opposite of this. It is appalling and it is intolerable.’
Senator Bragg has called for Cbus to be excluded from the federal government’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund.
“The Labor government in Canberra is trying to use the Cbus super fund to help them with the housing crisis,” he told Sydney radio host Chris O’Keefe on Tuesday.
‘I think the situation in the housing market is actually getting worse because of the Labour Party, because with all their solutions they can send more money to the vested interests in the unions instead of building more houses.
The Australian construction union, which is in trouble, is also responsible for one of the country’s largest industrial super funds and its property development arm is a key player in Labor’s multi-billion dollar plans for social housing (pictured is former Victoria secretary John Setka)
“The organization has been shut out by the labor movement, but apparently they are still helping the government with housing. I mean, it stinks.”
The CFMEU last month secured a 21 percent pay increase over four years for its members in Victoria.
In 2022, Wayne Swan, chairman of Cbus and former Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister, proposed that the organisation invest $500 million in projects through the Housing Australia Future Fund.
Senator Bragg argued that Cbus was in a conflict of interest because it would charge higher construction costs to taxpayers under Labor’s plan to build 30,000 social housing units over five years.
“These are the people who are trying to screw it up, they are the people who are making construction in Australia more expensive,” he said.
Senator Bragg also questioned why the CFMEU donated $1.25 million to Cbus in the 2022-2023 budget year.
“We should not have a system where people’s pension savings are used for political purposes, and certainly not for purposes such as supporting criminal activities, cyclists and organised crime. That is what I think is happening,” he said.
‘People’s hard-earned money is being used to finance mafia-like behavior.’
Rita Mallia, Mr Swan’s deputy, is chair of the New South Wales branch of the CFMEU.
The CFMEU is a major shareholder in Cbus, a pension fund with 930,000 members and $94 billion under management, and has key construction union members on its board
The Cbus board also includes prominent CFMEU members, including former national construction minister Dave Noonan (pictured) and the union’s former Australian Capital Territory boss Jason O’Mara, who has previously been accused of threatening to take businesses out of the city.
Cbus’ board also includes prominent CFMEU members, including former national construction minister Dave Noonan and former Australian Capital Territory union boss Jason O’Mara, who has previously been accused of threatening to take businesses out of the city.
In another twist, Cbus board member Denita Wawn, who is also CEO of Master Builders Australia, has called on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate the CFMEU.
The employer representative on the Cbus board told Daily Mail Australia it was a weak response to put the CFMEU national office in charge of the Victoria branch.
“A self-organized internal investigation is not enough,” she said.
“We need fully-fledged ACCC and FWO investigations, alongside an interstate police force.”
The CFMEU’s Victoria branch is now in receivership and under the supervision of the national office, but its website promotes Cbus.
The super fund’s development arm, Cbus Property, has built 1 William Street in Brisbane, which now houses Queensland Government ministers.
Despite the Labor connections, the former Queensland government, the Liberal National Party led by Campbell Newman, awarded Cbus the $653 million tender in 2012, with the 260-metre tower opening in October 2016.
Cbus delivered strong returns for its members in 2023-24, with SuperRatings data showing that balanced option funds grew by 11.4 per cent, ahead of the industry average of 8.8 per cent.
When it was established in 1984, it was initially called the Building Unions Superannuation Scheme.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Cbus and Mr Burke for comment on Senator Bragg’s claims.