Federal police under fire over CFMEU corruption probes after state raids
The Australian Federal Police’s refusal to take on a formal request over alleged CFMEU and building-industry corruption has triggered a rare public rebuke fr...
The Australian Federal Police’s refusal to take on a formal request over alleged CFMEU and building-industry corruption has triggered a rare public rebuke from a federal regulator, and forced state detectives to move first.
Victorian and Queensland police launched their own joint investigation after the AFP declined to step in. That probe has already led to dramatic raids this week, sharpening scrutiny on whether corruption linked to the construction sector is still active across state borders.
A federal regulator breaks ranks
Fair Work Commission general manager Murray Furlong has now gone further. In a confidential letter to the AFP, obtained under freedom-of-information laws, he said he was worried about the lack of tangible progress in federal probes into crime in Australia’s building industry and the CFMEU.
Furlong warned that slow movement could encourage corrupt figures to act with impunity. The intervention is unusual, and it lands hard. Federal regulators do not often confront police command in writing over unfinished investigations.
Questions over police capacity
The episode raises awkward questions for the AFP at a time when it is carrying a growing national security workload. It also puts fresh pressure on the Albanese government’s two-year effort to clean up the CFMEU, a campaign already shadowed by fresh police action this week.
The concern is not confined to one state. The unresolved matters span Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and involve suspected financial crime as well as alleged corruption tied to the building sector.
For now, the most visible momentum sits with the state investigators who stepped in when federal police would not. Their raids this week suggest the matter is far from over. The AFP, meanwhile, is being asked why it did not move sooner — or at all — on a formal cross-border request tied to one of Australia’s most politically sensitive unions.
