Over the past fortnight, we have seen Premier Roger Cook and Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti running a protection racket for their criminal paymasters – the CFMEU.
Day after day, more revelations about the CFMEU’s criminal underbelly continue to engulf the Cook Labor Government.
Whether it’s bikie thugs or convicted criminals enforcing the CFMEU agenda, Western Australian workers – in the absence of any leadership from Roger Cook – have been left at the mercy of the CFMEU.
Today, Roger Cook dropped the biggest hint yet that he and WA Labor are completely beholden to the CFMEU.
Instead of returning the $25,000 the CFMEU donated to WA Labor or disaffiliating this criminal union from his party, Roger Cook announced another wet blanket measure that will have no real impact.
It doesn’t nearly go far enough.
No one was buying the spin. The minute the announcement dropped, the first headline in the West Australian read:
“Premier Roger Cook confirms WA Labor will maintain links with CFMEU despite alleged criminal links”
Every state Labor leader across Australia has disaffiliated and returned the criminal donations from the CFMEU. Why won’t Roger Cook?
His premiership relies on the financial and partyroom support of this beleaguered union.
Roger Cook only cares about himself.
Instead of worrying about his own job, he should be worrying about the threats, illegal activity and allegations that continue to surface.
In return for bankrolling the Cook Labor Government, the CFMEU have secured a Best Practice Industry Conditions (BPIC) agreement that acts as a battering ram against Western Australian workers and taxpayers.
Today, the Premier had an opportunity to announce that he would be scrapping the poorly designed WAPBIC to assure industry that the CFMEU wouldn’t have a seat at the table.
He didn’t.
These conditions have been used by the Cook Labor Government to gift the CFMEU with a 25% pay rise on at least one Government project.
It’s clear that Western Australian taxpayers are being treated as an ATM by WA Labor.
The Premier should be doing everything in his power to demonstrate WA Labor and himself aren’t taking orders from the militant CFMEU.
The CFMEU’s influence does not end there.
The CFMEU have secured the lucrative #2 and #16 spot on the Cook Labor Government’s upper house ticket for the upcoming March 2025 state election.
Labor’s No. 2, The Hon Matthew Swinbourn MLC, who fancies himself as the next Attorney General, made his priorities clear in his maiden speech: “My first thank you is to my union, the mighty Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. I thank its members, officials and leadership for the support, encouragement, and opportunity that they have given me. I will not forget where I came from, and I will not let them down.”
This level of CFMEU support is supposedly WA Labor’s future vision for law and justice.
Roger Cook and Rita Saffioti’s response to the CFMEU has been weak and pathetic.
The Premier must suspend the CFMEU, return all donations, and assure the people of Western Australia that the scourge of bikies and criminals will never be seen again by Western Australia workers.
WA deserves better.
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