Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has asked the Labor Party to suspend the CFMEU from the state branch and to bar all political donations from the construction division.

Allan wants the national ALP executive to make the call amid allegations the union has been infiltrated by bikie gang members and organised crime figures.

“What we have seen here in recent days isn’t unionism, it’s thuggish, unacceptable behaviour at its worst,” Allan said on Monday.

“The union itself has acknowledged that it needs to fix its conduct and shouldn’t have anything to do with the Victorian branch of the Labor Party until it does.”

Allan will also ask Victorian Labor to immediately stop accepting political donations from the CFMEU.

The union will be referred to Victoria Police and the state’s anti-corruption watchdog.

The Labor government will toughen anti-bikie laws to make it easier for police and courts to stop certain individuals from associating with each other.

Allan said she would also ask the federal government to exercise powers under the Fair Work Act to review and potentially terminate enterprise agreements on Victorian construction sites to prevent criminal activity.

The state will also conduct an independent review, in consultation with the federal government, to strengthen the powers of Victorian agencies who engage with construction companies and unions.

It follows a series of reports by Nine Media after an investigation into criminal links within the construction division of the CFMEU.

Statement from the Premier. pic.twitter.com/1GKcRPg8tx

— Jacinta Allan (@JacintaAllanMP) July 15, 2024

Ahead of the reports, Victorian union boss John Setka immediately stood down from his position on Friday citing “false accusations” and “malicious attacks”.

Also on Monday, the national executive of the CFMEU put the Victorian branch into administration. But national secretary Zach Smith said he opposed calls for it to be deregistered.

“We should be careful about denying workers and construction workers a voice in the political process,” he said.

Smith said he didn’t know how any potential termination of an enterprise bargaining agreement would work on a practical level.

“We can’t have a situation where workers are relying on an enterprise agreement to underpin their wages and conditions at work and overnight, through no fault of their own, that protection is stripped away and they have no certainty over their wages and conditions,” he said.

He added the union would co-operate with any police and corruption investigations.

Smith said the CFMEU’s national office would assume senior executive powers and an independent process would be set up to investigate the criminal allegations.

“The CFMEU has zero tolerance for criminality and anyone found to have engaged in criminal conduct while representing the CFMEU will be identified and removed,” Smith said.

Primed Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the news.

“That’s a good next step, but we need further action, and we need to make sure that results in an isolation and both action in terms of the law but also action within the union,” he told ABC radio.

“I have a very clear message for the CFMEU, which is, they need to clean up their act. I have zero tolerance for it.”

Albanese said the allegations raised were a betrayal of union members.

“If there are any breaches of the law, they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent, and people need to be held to account,” he said.

“I have contempt for someone like John Setka. He has no legitimate role in the union movement.”

On Sunday, Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke said all options needed to be on the table in terms of dealing with the union, including deregistering it.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the government, as the Labor Party, must stop taking donations from the union, deregister it and re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which it abolished in 2023.

“Actions speak louder than words,” he told Nine’s Today program.

“And the Labor Party’s been very close to the CFMEU.”

The Business Council of Australia wants a “full, frank and independent” judicial inquiry into the union and said the CFMEU should be immediately banned from accepting government contracts.

“An inquiry of this nature would have the power to compel documents and witnesses, which is critical if we are to genuinely get to the bottom of how union officials and criminal organisations have allegedly worked together to profit from government and taxpayer-funded projects,” chief executive Bran Black said.

“All Australians suffer when unions undertake this sort of alleged behaviour, drastically pushing up building costs and making it so much harder to buy a home when we are already in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis.”

-AAP