The New South Wales government has moved to place the state's branch of the CFMEU into administration accusing the leadership of being unable or unwilling to reform. The move follows corruption allegations levelled at the union's state secretary. He is refusing to stand down and denies the claims.
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00:00The NSW Secretary Darren Greenfield and his son Michael were charged in 2021 with corruption
00:07offences. It's alleged the men in 2020 solicited and accepted payments from the owner of a
00:14building company in exchange for preferential treatment from the union. Now the nine newspapers
00:21have today published images which the outlet says show Mr Greenfield receiving money under
00:28a table receiving a wad of cash and then placing it in a desk drawer. It says that these images
00:34were captured from a hidden police camera. The Greenfields deny the charges and these
00:39allegations remain before the courts and are yet to be tested by a jury and nevertheless
00:45the allegations have prompted a response from the NSW Premier Chris Minns who has described
00:51the allegations as appalling. He says it shows the CFMEU's construction and general
00:57division is clearly either incapable or unwilling of cleaning itself up. I've been all ears from the
01:05CFMEU in NSW for an explanation or perhaps a resignation in the last five hours and absolutely
01:12nothing has been forthcoming. Now under those circumstances we are left with no alternative
01:18other than to take what is unprecedented action in NSW. The NSW Government is seeking to
01:24appoint an independent administrator to take over the management of the CFMEU in NSW.
01:31The State Government is also asking the NSW branch of the Labor Party to immediately suspend
01:37its affiliation with the CFMEU and to stop accepting political donations or and affiliation
01:43fees. Electoral Commission records show that between 2019 and 2023 the NSW branch of the ALP
01:53received $380,000 in donations from the construction and general division of the CFMEU.
02:01The State Opposition is calling for a Royal Commission into the operation of the CFMEU
02:06and it also says that the ALP should hand back any political donations as well as affiliation
02:13fees it's received since the alleged offences took place. This is dirty money, it is tainted money
02:21and it is money which for the last three years have been collected against a background where
02:26the Labor Party knew of these allegations. To suggest that we only found out about them today
02:32is just complete nonsense. The Premier has effectively ruled out handing back any donations
02:38saying that the money has already been spent and that doing so would involve raising money
02:43from its donors from mums and dads to hand over to the union. The Premier faced some questions
02:48about why he didn't take action early this week. He said that he did take action back in 2021 as
02:54opposition leader removing the greenfields from the Labor Party when those allegations surfaced.
03:01The ABC has contacted the CFMEU for comment but we're yet to hear back.