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A swathe of allegations: intimidation, coercion, brown paper bags filled with cash.
The construction sector of the CFMEU has been exposed by recent media reports over allegations of criminal and offensive behaviour.
The union's issues have been raked over by regulators and widely understood by people in the orbit of construction and politics.
But what's the impact on the everyday consumer or worker?
Does it have any impact on the cost of housing, as the sector slumps despite hot demand for homes?
The answer is more complex than you might think.
And it's not all one way: many have experienced an upside to the union's dominance in the sector.
Costs? Up
The union largely operates on the sites of mega-projects like skyscrapers, train tunnels and freeways.
Instead of having people bargain individually about their pay with big developers or the government, the union's collective agreements have brought high wages and strong conditions to construction workers.
So, has the union made building apartments and houses in the suburbs more expensive, despite not being involved in small-scale construction?
"Yes," said Phil Dwyer, national president of the Builders Collective of Australia, which represents small builders.
"It certainly has driven up costs," said Denita Wawn, chief executive of Master Builders Australia.
"Ultimately, anything that occurs that costs money in our sector is passed on to the client.
"We have always said that up to 30 per cent increases occur on construction sites, because of the activities of the CFMEU.
"We have been ridiculed in the past for that figure. But nevertheless, it just reinforces I think, the impact this has on the industry and on the community at large."
Given labour is a key cost of construction and the margin (profit) on commercial projects is far less than 30 per cent, if the Master Builders assertion was correct then every site with a CFMEU workplace agreement would lose money.
Producer price indexes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics measure the cost to industry of products and services.
This index lifted 5.9 per cent annually for the year to March for the construction industry (slightly less for the residential sector, slightly more for non-residential).
Labour costs and shortages are most of it, but so are price increases for "concrete based structural components due to high demand" as well as "high manufacturing costs".
"The ongoing activity in the non-residential market, coupled with pressure from the residential and infrastructure sectors, continued to drive competition for limited resources."
So it's likely not allegations of criminal behaviour that are costing the big bucks.
It's the rising wages of even junior workers, where the CFMEU's collective bargaining has allowed them to earn substantial pay packets.
Demand side
This cost is almost impossible to untangle from a broader issue: demand.
After decades of under-investment, Victoria, New South Wales and future Olympics host Queensland have gone on a taxpayer-funded infrastructure binge that has super-charged the construction sector.
That's soaked up a lot of workers.
Victoria's so-called 'Big Build' of tunnels, rail links, freeways and level crossing removals boasts of employing more than 20,000 people.
Many tradespeople have been lured to jobs subject to well-paying CFMEU agreements, where the scope of projects runs in years and even decades.
"So we've lost a huge amount of good tradespeople and it's certainly created a shortage of tradespeople in domestic areas," Mr Dwyer said.
"Most certainly trades have (since) escalated in price, because with the shortages it's, 'No, I can't do it', 'I can do it if you pay me X dollars' or 'This is my price'."
In recent years, supply constraints meant the price of timber, PVC and other items went up.
Mega-projects have also pushed up a key cost in the construction sector: people.
Flow-on effect
The inability to get tradespeople at rates builders can afford, or in a timely manner, creates delays and exposes builders to penalties for not hitting deadlines.
Very few builders can employ all the tradespeople they need on a permanent basis.
The way most dwelling construction works is that different skills, like plumbing or electrical work, are needed at different phases of the build.
So sub-contractors, or "subbies", work on either the entire life of a project or particular tasks.
"This is the reason you're seeing so many builders go down," said Mr Dwyer, who represents small builders.
"There's just that much shortage in the system."
Statistics from corporate watchdog ASIC show that for the past financial year to March 17, there were 1,987 insolvencies in the building industry.
This figure is up from 1,495 a year earlier.
It was just 782 in 2022 as the government pumped cash into the economy through COVID and temporarily suspended insolvency laws.
Rising wages or sub-contractor costs could be one factor, but they're not the only one.
Rocketing prices for materials, homes sold on fixed-price contracts that builders then struggled to honour and the end of a tax office 'pause' on chasing debt have all played a part.
Plain sight
Beyond the allegations of corruption and criminal behaviour, what Charles Cameron perceives as the cost of the CFMEU has long worried him.
As chief executive of the peak body for labour-hire firms, the Recruitment, Consulting & Staffing Association (RCSA), he's watched the expansion of the union over workforces on large construction projects.
"This is a union stranglehold," he said.
"It's a complete control. We've got laws, but what is the point if these are the scenarios that are existing?"
There have been specific regulators for the construction industry.
They have been created and killed off successive times.
The most recent example, the Australian Building and Construction Commission or ABCC, shut its doors in February 2023.
Mr Cameron said the union creates another cost, through a lack of competition.
He represents about 850 members that operate under about 1,500 brand names.
He said that 20 years ago a host of them were involved in the commercial construction sector.
"Now, I can't name one."
A lack of competition — particularly in specialised fields like cranes — makes the industry reliant on companies that are linked to the CFMEU.
Just like the free market forces that have made it more expensive to hire tradies, that boosts costs for construction.
Yeah, but
Reports of thuggish behaviour, potential corruption and market control are concerning and should be investigated.
But there's a another impact that doesn't grab as many headlines.
Phil Dwyers notes an oft-quoted figure of $200,000 for a "Stop/Go" operator on a big CFMEU-controlled site, which would place them in the top 4 per cent of Australian income earners.
To earn that, a traffic operator would have to be working nights, weekends and public holidays that are subject to penalty rates that others working "unsociable hours" also get.
In addition, they'll likely be outside, standing and in charge of safety in a dangerous and moving environment.
Business groups and developers might grumble about skilled tradespeople earning $180,000 a year.
But you won't find many tradespeople concerned about it.
"People in the industry say, 'I want a part of that'."