CFMEU inquiry LIVE updates: Mark Irving gives evidence as hearings continue for third day in Queensland

Evidence turns to some of the financial arrangements of the Queensland union and a “service agreement” between two technical entities: the Queensland and Northern Territory branch of the federally registered union and a Queensland-registered union.

CFMEU administrator Mark Irving says the result of this was the state’s 15,000-20,000 members – and their $40 million to $50 million in fees – were paid to the state registered body instead of the federal one.

This meant the members were no longer financial members of the federal registered body and would not have had voting rights, Irving says, in a move he believes is contrary to union rules, “and in my view, contrary to law”.

“The arrangement ended up in a position whereby if there had been a vote, the only people who would have been eligible to vote were the 160 people up in the Northern Territory.”

Irving says he believes the agreement was entered into by ousted leaders Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham, without advising the national union governance body and without legal advice, in the days after the 2020 union elections in which themselves and their “team” were elected unopposed.

“I received legal advice about correcting the whole thing,” Irving says. A range of investment properties then appeared to be acquired by the state registered union after the agreement was reached.

“I’m giving you information based on my recollection of financial transactions … [but] there’s a vast amount of documentary evidence which will set this all out.

“I have formed a view about these transactions and I have formed a view about the legality of those transactions,” Irving continues, saying this view would inform his action regarding the expulsion of Ravbar and Ingham from the union and any further action or referrals to external bodies required.

“If one wanted to keep their power intact and unchallenged … one might want to create an impenetrable fortress into which the national organisation could not reach.”