Two CFMEU heavyweights have blamed each other for trying to cover up the destruction of tonnes of documents during a fiery day of evidence at the trade union royal commission.
CFMEU national vice president Michael Ravbar and former second-in-command David Hanna traded verbal blows from the witness box in Brisbane on Thursday while insisting there was nothing unusual about the April 2014 document purge.
Mr Ravbar accused Mr Hanna of stupidity and corrupt behaviour, while Mr Hanna described his old boss as a micro-manager who went through dozens of staff.
Both said it was the other's idea to cover security cameras during a massive but "normal" clean-out of the CFMEU's Brisbane office on the same day it was served with a notice to produce evidence.
"A lot of organisations clean out, a lot of organisations shred stuff," Mr Ravbar said.
"All the stuff that I've been hearing over the last three or four days is nothing unusual.
"The only thing that was unusual (was) about the stupidity of covering it up and the stupidity of the way it was removed."
Mr Hanna, who has since quit the union, insisted Mr Ravbar was behind the secrecy and denied suggestions he was trying to bring his old boss down.
He said he quit because he couldn't work with Mr Ravbar and suggested other staff whose testimony backed Mr Ravbar's version were afraid of losing their jobs.
"People know that Michael does take a hard line and does rule by fear, you know, in Michael's time I believe he's gone through about 30 organisers," Mr Hanna said.
He responded angrily to accusations by the CFMEU lawyer of unethical behaviour during his time at the Builders Labourers Federation.
"Everybody knows you never got a f***ing favour out of me in my time at the BLF Union," Mr Hanna said.
Both Mr Hanna and Mr Ravbar denied seeing a notice to produce evidence to the royal commission emailed at 4.16pm on April 1, 2014, until at least the following day.
Both men said nothing relevant was thrown out anyway.
The Brisbane hearing has now wrapped up and the royal commission is due to resume in Sydney next month.
CFMEU national secretary Dave Noonan said there was no evidence any relevant documents had been destroyed and the week's hearing had been a waste of time.
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