BY SUE BULL
GEELONG — When the building industry royal commission reported its findings on March 26, its major focus and attack on trade unionists surprised few construction workers in Geelong. They had always thought the commission was purely set up to destroy unions.
Even Brendan Murphy, organiser for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, was not fazed by being named in the report, a result of allegations made by a discredited person who has been expelled from the union.
However, no one expected the ferocious assault from the Geelong Advertiser, the local paper that calls itself the "voice of Geelong since 1840". With a front-page banner headline reading "Union bully boys cited", the paper regurgitated allegations against Murphy and the CFMEU that had been made by former CFMEU shop steward and convicted criminal Gary Carter, who gave evidence to the royal commission.
Murphy does not expect to be charged."The commission did not even allow me to put my side. You would think at $60 million they could have spared me five minutes", he explained.
But this didn't stop the Advertiser. The next day, March 28, on page 3, there was another huge headline: "Unionist admits he was a heavy — 'Violence my job'". Carter was given free range to make any allegation he liked, none of which had been checked or tested.
The only builder, Furio Rovere a former manager of Wycombe Constructions, that was quoted by the Advertiser in the article, said that Murphy fought hard for workers but was fair to deal with.
Murphy's response to the whole thing has been, "If sticking up for workers is a crime then all CFMEU organisers are guilty".
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, April 2, 2003.
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