Union’s alleged vile picket threat
'The CFMEU should not be, in any circumstances, threatening Jewish organisations with intimidation'
Federal Labor MP Josh Burns has lashed the CFMEU’s threats to picket the Hakoah White City site with ostensibly pro-Palestinian activists as “an appalling antisemitic way of targeting a Jewish organisation”.
The controversial union has made the threats in connection to a dispute between Hakoah Club and its former builder, Parkview constructions, whose contact was terminated in May.
Hakoah president Steven Lowy said in an email to club members on Monday, “The CFMEU has recently been involved in support of Parkview, despite Hakoah’s genuine attempts to resolve this matter on numerous occasions.
“Whilst we continue to try to work through this matter, we are currently engaged in a thorough tender process to identify and appoint a new builder who will complete the project with dedication to cost, quality and timelines.”
In a leaked email earlier this month, CFMEU NSW secretary Darren Greenfield told Sydney Grammar Edgecliff Preparatory School, which adjoins White City, that action was planned but it would not disrupt the school. The AJN understands that an unknown source divulged that the union has threatened to invite the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
“Trying to use the Middle East conflict to intimidate a Jewish organisation and threatening them with pro-Palestine protesters is not only very divisive and dangerous, but it’s also an appalling antisemitic way of targeting a Jewish organisation,” Burns told The Australian Financial Review on Monday.
“The CFMEU should not be, in any circumstances, threatening Jewish organisations with intimidation, or seeking to use a Jewish community centre in Australia as some sort of legitimate target for Middle East politics.
“The Hakoah Club is literally about celebrating Jewish life in Sydney and Australia, it’s not an outpost of the Israeli government.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns said, “This alleged attempt to inflame racial differences in our community to benefit in a contractual disagreement is completely outrageous.”
Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender, who has been working closely with Hakoah to deal with these escalating threats from the CFMEU, said she had written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese demanding he takes action on the union.
“The media has shone a light on very serious integrity issues and the pattern of thuggery and intimidation by the CFMEU at the national level. Now we can see what that means at a local level,” she said.
“A building dispute has nothing to do with a war overseas, but the CFMEU has attempted to use the conflict as intimidation and leverage in this dispute.
The Victorian branch of the union was last month accused of corruption and criminal links in a series of exposes in Nine Newspapers and the Nine current affairs show 60 Minutes.
On Monday, after securing a series of amendments, the Coalition agreed to back a federal government bill to place the CFMEU into administration for three years.
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