TOM HARTLEY, REPORTER: This bridge over Brisbane River was meant to be a straightforward job: a duplication to ease one of the city’s worst choke points.
Instead, the Centenary Bridge became a structure suspended over troubled waters – a metaphor for the CFMEU and a showcase of the union’s militant playbook. Ground zero for incidents like this.
STACEY SCHINNERL, AUSTRALIAN WORKERS UNION: I never wanted it to come to this, I simply wanted it to stop.
TOM HARTLEY: That clash was the culmination of years of tension between the CFMEU and Australian Workers Union. This week, that rivalry – that “turf war” – dominated the second sitting of the Commission of Inquiry.
Two valuable firsthand accounts came from two powerful union women summoned to give evidence.
MARK COSTELLO KC, COUNSEL ASSISTING: They’re doing this although there may be professional and personal costs.
TOM HARTLEY: Jacqueline King.
JACQUELINE KING, QUEENSLAND COUNCIL OF UNIONS: General Secretary of Queensland Council of Unions.
TOM HARTLEY: And Stacy Schinnerl.
STACEY SCHINNERL: I am the secretary of the Australian Workers Union of employees Queensland and the branch secretary of the Australian Workers Union Queensland branch.
TOM HARTLEY: The pair have worked collaboratively since their respective organisations affiliated in July 2024 after more than a century of competitive coexistence.
JACQUELINE KING: Leaving egos out of the room that we could sit down and try and forge a new pathway in Queensland.
TOM HARTLEY: As for the CFMEU – Ms King described its leadership under secretary Michael Ravbar and asst secretary Jade Ingham, as “autocratic”.
Ms Schirnerl claimed that she and her union experienced escalating volatility from 2019 as the CFMEU started chasing civil contracts, considered AWU territory.
She alleged that hostility escalated in 2022 after she became the AWU’s first female leader.
STACEY SCHINNERL: In my view my elevation to that role was seen as an opportunity by the CMFEU perhaps to finally take the industries they wanted from the AWU. Perhaps a female leader would be easy to roll.
TOM HARTLEY: Ms Schinnerl told the commission the turning point occurred during this conference, after she made a joke about the CFMEU storming a government building.
STACEY SCHINNERL: I’ve been told by many sources, that Mr Ravbar has identified that particular moment as myself starting a war with the CFMEU. The following week he called all staff in to Brisbane whereby he discussed plans to, I quote, “take down the AWU.”
Our organisers were being severely verbally assaulted and challenged. The frequency of those experiences were so recurrent and so often after a while our organisers took it as par for the course and did not report every incident.
TOM HARTLEY: One such incident allegedly occurred here at the site of the Cross River Rail project.
STACEY SCHINNERL: Organiser Jamie McQueen had arrived at site before the rest of us, and his car was currently surrounded by CFMEU members. Mr McQueen had been shown a weapon. His tyres had been let down, and he had been told not to exit the vehicle.
TOM HARTLEY: Around the same time, it’s alleged a verbal threat was made against Ms Schinnerl.
STACEY SCHINNERL: Words to the effect of if I stick my head up, it will get knocked off.
PATRICK WHEELAHAN KC, COUNSEL ASSISTING: How did you take that?
STACEY SCHINNERL: I took that to be a threat on my life.
PATRICK WHEELAHAN: Did it give you concerns for your family as well as yourself?
STACEY SCHINNERL: Very much so.
PATRICK WHEELAHAN: Yes.
STACEY SCHINNERL: Absolutely. I live in a perpetual heightened state of anxiety.
PATRICK WHEELAHAN: And fear.
STACEY SCHINNERL: Yes.
TOM HARTLEY: Another video was tendered, showing CFMEU members vandalising an AWU car in Ms Schinnerl’s secure carpark.
STACEY SCHINNERL: But I think there’s actually a more sinister twist to that, we know where you are, we’re coming for you.
TOM HARTLEY: On day three of this week’s sitting, Ms Schinnerl shared one of her worst experiences. It was Labor Day, 2023 when she claims she was verbally assaulted by a nameless member of the CFMEU in front of her son.
STACEY SCHINNERL: He then really pushed up against me and he leaned past me and it felt like he was trying to get past me to my child and he said, “How does it feel to know your mum’s a ****** grub who sells out workers.”
I think at that moment my mumma bear tendencies took over, I said **** that, and at that point the security turned up.
TOM HARTLEY: The commission was told the hostility continued to the point QCU boss Jacqueline King felt compelled to step in.
JACQUELINE KING: Things were going pear shaped pretty rapidly and I remember having the view that… sorry. I remember having the view that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something actually happened.
TOM HARTLEY: Ms King organised an informal meeting for them both with the Queensland Police Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.
MARK COSTELLO: And you handed them evidence in the form of USB with video footage, and is it the case you didn’t hear back from them?
JACQUELINE KING: Yes.
MARK COSTELLO: At all?
JACQUELINE KING: Yes.
MARK COSTELLO: Do you consider that there is a reticence on the part of Queensland Police to involve themselves in matters that involve unions.
JACQUELINE KING: I never would have that view up until recently, but I think that that has been the case, rightly or wrongly, around particularly industrial matters in construction.
TOM HARTLEY: But now, the inquiry’s commissioner has asked for evidence from the hearing to be presented to the police.
Ms Schinnerl told the hearing the CFMEU intended to infiltrate and take over the AWU in Queensland and was prepared to spend $1 million to do it.
STACEY SCHINNERL: We have been hearing this on and off for some time.
PATRICK WHEELAHAN: Where would the $1 million come from?
STACEY SCHINNERL: I could not tell you that and whether that’s accurate, I do not know.
TOM HARTLEY: Senior Counsel told the Commission the CFMEU’s former leaders should be called to respond to the allegations against them before Ms Schinnerl faces any cross-examination.
STACEY SCHINNERL: I don’t know where Mr Ingham lives, I don’t know where Mr Ravbar lives, but I’m reasonably confident that they know where I live, and I can’t explain to you particularly as a parent and a dog mum, how vulnerable that makes me feel.
And I know the impact of me sitting here today probably makes me a bigger target, but it’s the right thing to do because I haven’t done anything wrong, my union hasn’t done anything wrong, and if I’m guilty of anything it’s actually standing up to them
