‘Working man's sport': John Setka defends push to remove AFL umpiring chief
Setka made the comments in his defence to legal action taken against him by the Fair Work Ombudsman over his extraordinary spray against McBurney, former boss of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, in news articles and radio appearances in 2024.
The FWO alleges Setka took adverse action against McBurney over decisions he made as head of the ABCC, including initiating or participating in more than 50 court actions against the union between 2018 and 2023, when he was leading the commission.
It also alleges Setka threatened the AFL that CFMEU members would work to rule at any worksite related to an AFL building project as part of his efforts to coerce the AFL to dump McBurney.
The legal action could lead to large fines reaching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars against Setka and the CFMEU. Until last week, Setka had failed to file any defence to the FWO claim, telling the Federal Court he was unable to attend to the matter due to poor health.
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Along with his long-awaited defence to the FWO claim, Setka has also filed a counterclaim against the CFMEU, alleging he was acting within his remit as the head of the Victorian arm of the union at the time and that the union's administrator had refused to pay for his legal fees.
Setka stood down from his union role in July 2024 days ahead of an investigation led by this masthead, Building Bad, which revealed serious ongoing misconduct within the union and links to organised crime figures.
He has long claimed he was unfairly targeted in the investigation. The media investigation led to an administrator being appointed to the union to weed out rogue elements.
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