Public servant feared CFMEU boss would punch her in ‘frightening’ meeting

A “frightening interaction” with the former state head of the CFMEU left a senior public servant fearful of a physical assault, Queensland’s inquiry into the union has heard on a day when the union boss also gave his first evidence to the probe.

Office of Industrial Relations executive Andrea Fox, at times breaking into tears, said that after the 2018 incident with then CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar, she warned female colleagues not to meet with him alone.

The visit to the union’s Bowen Hills office by Fox and her colleagues, described in Geoffrey Watson SC’s Violence in the Queensland CFMEU report, resulted in Fox being separated from the group and berated by Ravbar in another room, with union president Royce Kupsch also present.

Fox said Ravbar did not address her by name or give a reason for his actions, but told her the union had been watching her, that people like her disgusted him, and she would not be allowed to enter any CFMEU buildings or sites.

Ravbar also commented to the effect that he would have liked to have had Fox “dragged out of here”, but that he would give her the courtesy of not embarrassing her in front of her colleagues.

Fox had never previously met Ravbar, whose behaviour in the room left her feeling like he might “lose control of his temper and punch me or something”, she told the inquiry, recalling that she had been focusing on his movements for any brief opportunity to react.

When Ravbar eventually went quiet, Fox left the room and Kupsch escorted her back to her colleagues with no mention of what had happened. Fox’s group then left. She told superiors about the incident and felt supported by them, but decided not to file a formal complaint.

Fox said nobody was able to ascertain why Ravbar had acted in this way towards her, and it was suggested that she just put it behind her because “he’s just crazy”, the inquiry heard.

Counsel for Ravbar, Charles Massy, later cross-examined Fox, based on a brief statutory declaration from the former union leader tendered as evidence – the first formal public statement given to the inquiry by the since-ousted union leadership.

Ravbar’s version of events was that the union had decided to “go around” Fox, who was seen as a roadblock to legislative changes – a position that Ravbar said he put to her bluntly in the room with Kupsch.

He told Fox he would tell her colleagues that the meeting with them would not proceed, but would leave it to her to explain why not.

Under cross-examination, Fox rejected Ravbar’s claim that he gave any reasoning for his tirade, and his assertion that he didn’t say she should be dragged out of the building. She said she also regretted not formally complaining.

Asked by Massy whether the reason that she did not do this, or keep a record of the event, was because it was not as serious as she was now portraying and the interaction had taken on a greater – but inaccurate – significance since then, Fox said this was “completely false”.

Evidence from Fox at the hearing, and in her written statement, included more detail of the alleged “capture” of Workplace Health and Safety Queensland and the actions of manager Helen Burgess, previously described as a “friend of the CFMEU”.

This week during the inquiry’s 10th block of public hearings it will also hear evidence from former deputy director-general overseeing OIR, Kym Bancroft, and former Queensland Building and Construction Commission licensing manager Graham Easterby.

Dimitri Ternovski, counsel assisting the inquiry, told the hearing on Tuesday morning that former QBCC Commissioner Brad Bassett directed staff to target specific contractors in response to union complaints.

“Not only was [ousted former leadership figure Jade] Ingham appointed to the QBCC board in 2018, but it appears the commissioner himself was captured,” Ternovski said.

“The CFMEU first used its capture of WHSQ to direct inspectors to attend sites of particular contractors it was targeting and then issue enforcement notices, and then the CFMEU sought to use these very notices, coupled with its influence over the QBCC, to get QBCC to take licensing action against the same contractor, so it was a double whammy.”

The Crisafulli government launched the $19.7 million probe last year after reporting by this masthead and 60 Minutes into criminality, corruption and misconduct in the union and construction sector nationwide.

Starting last July, its initial one-year timeline for a final report has been extended until December 2027. The inquiry will continue with evidence from Easterby on Wednesday.

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