RANK AND FILE CFMEU AND COMMUNITY, FIGHTING FOR A DEMOCRATIC, MEMBER-RUN UNION 
HANDS OFF THE CFMEU!



Why You Need to Read the 3rd Bi-Annual Report of the CFMEU Administrator by Mark Irvin KC



14 July 2026
This report was tabled in the federal parliament earlier this year. It explains the government administrator’s plans for our union over the next three years. 

You can read the report at: https://www.dewr.gov.au/workplace-relations/resources/cfmeu-construction-and-general-division-third-biannual-report


Below is a list of items in the report that Delegates and Members should be concerned about.



Cl.2. The CFMEU “…is moving towards a model based more on co-operation and collaboration and less on confrontation and conflict.”

Is someone going to tell the bosses to do this? Clearly, administration has no idea what it’s like to work in the building industry.


Cl.6. ‘Project agreements, arrangements that facilitate … flexible and productive rostering and RDO practices … ’

We’ve all been in the game long enough to know this mean no RDO calendar.  Bosses control when we work and we risk losing banked RDOs when a boss goes broke at Xmas.


Cl.14. National Steering Committee – ‘There are discrete committees whose work covers a wide variety of topics, including … Rules reform and demarcation resolution.’

A national body will decide the new structure of the union and given the history of the players involved, it will mean decisions and finances will be centralised in the national office and future branch officials will be puppets.


Cl.14. National Steering Committee – ‘There are discrete committees whose work covers a wide variety of topics, including … Rules reform and demarcation resolution.’

A national body will decide the new structure of the union and given the history of the players involved, it will mean decisions and finances will be centralised in the national office and future branch officials will be puppets.


Cl.23. - “A comprehensive review of all the Union’s demarcation issues is being undertaken. The Union will only represent those who it is lawfully entitled to represent.” 

“The results need to be enduring, and ensure that any settlement robustly survives for decades.”

This could hand most of Civil to the AWU and reduce us to commercial construction. AWU wants the major commonwealth infrastructure projects.

This will be forever,  very difficult to change and no industrial action is acceptable.


Cl.24. Demarcation … ‘the CFMEU Construction Division has engaged a former member of the Fair Work Commission [Julius Rowe former AMWU official who campaign against Worker First and shrunk that union] to arbitrate a dispute. All sides agreed to accept the outcome. This has resulted in a process where hundreds of members are being transferred from the Construction Division in accordance with the determination made. Once finalised, the outcome will be publicised so all stakeholders [Bosses] know where the lines of demarcation are.’

Our union is to be carved up, and coverage of members is unilaterally to be given not only to the AWU but also to the ASU and our old manufacturing section – now the Timber Furnishings and Textile Union.  

Thousands of classifications are earmarked to be forced out of the CFMEU.  The bosses will then be given a list to use when hiring workers in the future, and we all know what means — black bans!


Cl.26. ‘Strategic Plan includes …
  • Reviewing the rules and governance of the CFMEU;
  • Deciding the future of the Victoria Wellness Centre;
  • Hold a National Delegates Convention; Form delegate advisory committees’


Admin will probably lease out our Wellness Centre or – the rumour is – give it to the ACTU.

All delegates will have to be re-elected [read: weed out the militants] and be trained in how to behave. The monthly delegates mass meeting will be replaced with a selected delegate advisory committee that will go on an annual junket as a reward for towing the line.


Cl.30. ‘The union is rebuilding democratic structures (particularly amongst delegates) and reshaping their relationship to how power is exercised.’

In short, delegates will no longer be able to shut the job. 

See also Cl.2 and Cl. 18.


Footnote; Cl.34. is a backhand complement to our sacked CFMEU leaders; in part it reads, ‘the CFMEU is one of the most financially strong unions in Australia.’  Maybe that’s why all the Admin people are jumping on the gravy train and sucking up all our hard-earned dues?