Ousted CFMEU NSW secretary Darren Greenfield has addressed the Sydney rally as it settles outside state parliament.
“Everything we do, every decision we’ve made, is to benefit our members,” he said.
Darren Greenfield speaking at CFMEU rally in Sydney out the front of NSW Parliament House.Credit: Nick Moir
Greenfield, before leading a chant of “union power”, said people had been “trying to muddy my name for 45 f---ing years”.
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Greenfield, 56, and his son Michael, 36, were the secretary and assistant secretary of the construction union until last month.
That was despite the pair being arrested in September 2021 and charged with soliciting and accepting payments in exchange for preferential treatment to a building company.
Thousands of raucous union-allied protesters outside parliament are decrying MPs and the federal government-appointed CFMEU administrator.
Union leader Paul McAleer claimed legislation that deposed the CFMEU’s leadership was undemocratic.
“These laws were never about criminality. There is not a single guilty union official of the CFMEU. It is about handcuffing the fighting, militant trade union,” McAleer said.
The claims came despite Geoffrey Watson, KC, appointed by the CFMEU’s national secretary Zach Smith, substantiating allegations of criminality contained in this masthead’s Breaking Bad series.
“We will never trust the [Australian Labor Party] again. We will never trust the [Australian Council Of Trade Unions] again,” McAleer said.