Labor confident Setka will be kicked out

Labor frontbencher Catherine King believes CFMMEU offcial John Setka will be kicked out of the party at a national executive meeting on July 15.

John Setka addresses the Labor Party National Conference in 2018.

Source: AAP

Opposition frontbencher Catherine King is confident construction union official John Setka will be booted from the Labor Party.

Controversy surrounding the Victorian CFMMEU secretary has plunged the union movement into turmoil, with Mr Setka convicted of harassment over a domestic violence incident.

Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese wants the construction kingpin's membership torn up, arguing Mr Setka has not lived up to the party's values.

The peak body for unions also wants him to step aside, and the ALP will move to kick him out of the party at a national executive on July 15.

"I would expect that that's exactly what's going to happen," Ms King said.

Mr Setka has launched a court challenge against being expelled from the party, arguing the move would prevent him being an effective advocate for the CFMMEU and its members.

The ALP was due to consider his expulsion at meeting on Friday but Mr Setka was given an extension to prepare his case.

The coalition has used the issue as evidence it should pass laws making it easier to disqualify union officials and deregister workers' organisations.

Ms King argues the government refuses to accept the vital role unions play in ensuring workplace safety and negotiating productivity outcomes.

"The government hates unions. They don't want them in the system," she said

The coalition re-introduced its Ensuring Integrity Bill to parliament last week, with senior union officials meeting with crossbench senators in Canberra in a bid to have it blocked again.

The proposed laws were knocked back in the last parliament but the coalition has fewer senators to convince after increasing its numbers in the upper house at the election.

Ms King said the bill had been revised but questioned if substantive changes had been made.

"I doubt very much that this bill has got anything to do with integrity and has everything to do with the government's anti-union rhetoric," she said.


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Source: AAP



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