Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (right) said John Setka (centre) should give up on his campaign against the AFL and former umpire Stephen McBurney as “it’s just not very common sense”. Photo: AFL, @FatherBob, Michelle Kroll.
“If you want to win over the Australian people, don’t start attacking the AFL,” Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke told union boss John Setka.
Last week the Victorian-Tasmanian Secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said the AFL should fire Stephen McBurney.
The former umpire was appointed the AFL’s head of officiating in late March, but is being asked to step down by Mr Setka due to his former role as the commissioner of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).
Despite the ABCC’s dissolution by the government last year, Mr Setka has threatened to incite ”work-to-rule” campaigns or shutdowns on major AFL infrastructure projects. This includes the proposed $715 million stadium in Hobart and a new headquarters for the Adelaide Crows.
Mr Setka told The Australian that if Mr McBurney – an “anti-union, anti-worker f—ker” – was not sacked, “this is going to cost the AFL a lot of f–king money”.
At a Sydney press conference, Mr Burke said the laws around unlawful industrial action had not changed.
“They are very specific about the limitations of industrial action being assigned to specific bargaining periods, not because you don’t like someone who’s running umpires,” he said.
Asked whether it was appropriate for Mr Setka to threaten the AFL, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said plainly: “I removed John Setka from the Labor Party many years ago as one of my first acts as leader.”
During the press conference, Mr Burke said the ABCC was a “politicised” and “bad” organisation that the previous government should not have established.
“When you want to deal with workplaces, you should not have the big issues being whether or not someone’s got a sticker on their helmet or whether or not someone’s flying a flag at a building site,” he said.
“But that’s done. That’s been abolished, and it’s certainly not the government’s position in any way that you should then go after individuals who worked there. Public servants do the job of the government of the day.”
The CFMEU was a regular target of the ABCC, which Mr McBurney led from February 2018 until its abolishment. As a result, Mr McBurney became a regular target of Mr Setka.
According to The Guardian, in 2018 the union leader posted a now-deleted tweet showing his children with a sign reading “go get f—ked”, explicitly directing it “to McBurney & ABCC … GO CATCH REAL CRIMINALS YOU COWARDS!!”
In the following year, then-Commissioner McBurney said he was “very concerned” about reports that cocaine had been sold by union organisers out of their vehicles and that the ABCC would crack down on building entry permits.
The AFL and AFL Umpires Association have both come out to defend Mr McBurney.
In response to Mr Setka’s threats, the AFL said: “We are hopeful any intended action does not impact players, supporters or the wider community who benefit from upgrades to local clubrooms and our stadiums.”
On Wednesday (12 June), Mr Setka said his threat was not to the AFL but a result of his “grudge” against the former commissioner.
“People like McBurney can’t attack workers and their conditions and be so undemocratic they make North Korea look like a democracy, and then just ride off into the sunset like nothing’s ever happened,” he said.
Mr Setka conceded that his union would continue working on AFL projects and was “not going to stop or put bans on stadiums being built”.
“They’ll just work as normal, and that’s it, and if it runs behind, that’s bad luck.”
The union boss will retire as secretary later this year, confirming in February that he would not seek re-election. Throughout his term, Mr Setka has been mired in controversy.
He was placed on a good behaviour bond in 2019 after pleading guilty to harassing his wife via text message. At the end of last year, his wife was also fined for threatening to kill him.
In 2019, the Prime Minister, who was Labor leader at the time, expelled Mr Setka from the party for mocking family violence campaigner Rosie Batty. The union boss denied making the comments and rejected calls for him to leave the CFMEU.
