Nervous is not a word anyone would use to describe John Setka. In fact, if you dared to insinuate that he was, you’d likely be laughed off every construction site in the country.
But when the former head of Australia’s most powerful union arrived at our 7NEWS Spotlight studio, it’s obvious that was exactly what he was.
Setka’s world has vastly changed in recent weeks. His union is in tatters, he no longer holds its highly influential office and its heavyweight hierarchy has been reduced to those now hoping to pick up weekend odd jobs from Gumtree.
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This is the worst-case scenario for the CFMEU.
Over two interviews it’s obvious John Setka hasn’t enjoyed keeping quiet. It’s not in his nature but he’s sat back and watched as allegations of bikie and underworld infiltration swept through and dismantled the union piece by piece.
He says he’s speaking now to “tell his side of the story”.
At first Setka isn’t entirely honest about why he left the CFMEU, months before he planned.
But when the Federal Government forced administrators into the union, Setka’s gloves were off.
It’s then he details the “secret deal” between the union and the Federal Government.
That deal he says made it clear: walk the plank and there will be no external hands on his beloved union.
It was a deal Setka ran to on a Friday evening. For him, saving the union was always the goal.
“I said, you know what, I’ll go, I will pull the pin today because my job is to protect the union and its members,” he tells 7NEWS Spotlight in a tell-all interview to air tonight on Channel 7.
“That’s my job and I’ll go today. But they leave the union alone.”
We asked Tony Burke’s office, the former workplace relations minister, if a deal had been done. We didn’t receive an answer or a denial.
If Setka was hooked up to a lie detector for the hours we spoke, I think it would be pushing into the green at that point but, during other moments, it would’ve headed into the red.
Setka sat at the top of the union tree for 12 years and when pushed on corruption, kickbacks and standover tactics, he’s uncomfortable.
“Look, there’s probably some elements of it,” he says.
But he stops short of admitting the union was infiltrated by organised crime. To use his words, all of that is just “absolute bullshit”.
Then there’s the CCTV of Setka’s unmistakeable silhouette dropping a suitcase in the driveway of the CFMEU’s assistant national secretary Leo Skourdoumbis.
I showed Setka stills of the vision, and he immediately shifted his weight in his seat.
Asked “What are you doing there?” Setka replied factually, “dropping off a suitcase” (it’s obvious this line of questioning was going to take some teeth pulling).
“To who and why?”
“Well, I’m dropping off a suitcase to Leo the dog, which is by the way, his suitcase.”
If the lie detector had a grey zone, that’s where we would be now.
This tug of war between Setka and I continued for some time. What became obvious was the vision of Setka throwing the suitcase down the driveway was him sending a message.
But was that message a threat from the CFMEU to signal a takeover of the manufacturing division? That now seems unlikely.
Was it a personal dispute between two men who’d known each other and their respective families for years? We would be again pushing into the green.
In the days after the 7NEWS Spotlight promo aired, I received a call from a person familiar with unions.
He said: “Sharnelle, how do you know John Setka is lying? His mouth is moving.”
Reflecting on that comment I think about why Setka would want to do a tell all.
He openly hates the media, and he hates journalists like me but the answer is now obvious.
To tell his union loyalists ’don’t vote for Labor’. Because even in retirement, Setka knows his words carry weight with members who’ve paid their union fees month after month for years.
And when Setka holds a grudge, the lie detector pushes off the scale when he says, “payback is certain”.
Sharnelle Vella is a 7NEWS Melbourne senior reporter on assignment for 7NEWS Spotlight.