The CFMMEU's construction and general division has blasted the AFP over an investigation that has dragged on since a raid on its Queensland offices in 2015, only to be dropped last month after the police admitted errors by digital forensics officers.
As ROC staff await their transfer to the FWC, the watchdog has found that a former AEU ACT branch secretary did not improperly use his position, while it is also pursuing the AWU and a CFMMEU mining and energy division Queensland district leader in the Federal Court.
Incoming CFMMEU construction and general division national secretary Zachary (Zach) Smith will take over from the long-serving Dave Noonan in April, after 15 years with the union and serving as leader and assistant leader of the ACT branch for the past three years.
The ROC has found the IEU WA branch's former secretary appears to have benefited from spending union funds but has decided not to pursue the matter given the time, resources and cost it would require and the branch's desire to drop it.
The ROC has resolved to seek penalties against the AWU in the Federal Court, after an 18-month investigation concluded it had committed 27,000 breaches over nine years of obligations to keep accurate membership records and "significantly overstated" the real numbers.
Newly-elected NTEU national general secretary Damien Cahill says the union will renew its campaign for increased public funding for universities and push for a parliamentary inquiry into the sector's "corporatised " governance.
A court has found that a union's head office is prevented by its own rules from hearing accusations of "gross misbehaviour" brought against a State divisional leader.
The leader of the ANMF's West Australian branch, Mark Olson, is stepping down after 24 years in the job and an often mercurial approach, which included taking the view that unions should not "shy away" from the Abbott Government's Heydon royal commission into trade unions.
Former AWU leader Bill Ludwig has been remembered as no-nonsense ex-shearer who dedicated his life to the union and became highly influential in the Labor Party in Queensland and nationally.
