Face of Nation : Labor leader Anthony Albanese has said he will move to expel union leader John Setka from the Labor Party, because his reported comments on domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty are out of step with mainstream Australia.
Speaking in Perth on Tuesday, Albanese revealed he had asked the party’s national executive committee to suspend Setka immediately, and would move a motion to have him booted from the party at the next meeting of the ALP’s administrative body.
Setka, the Victorian secretary of the CFMMEU, has claimed he was “taken out of context” after the Age reported he told a union meeting Batty’s advocacy had led to men having fewer rights. On Tuesday, Setka said he had fallen victim to “dirty ALP politics” and that people were “making up lies about what I said
Albanese said he had written to the national executive on Tuesday morning after speaking to Batty, who was made an officer of the Order of Australia as part of the Queen’s Birthday honours list on Monday.
My concern here is that John Setka undermines the credibility of the trade union movement through the position that he holds and the public views that he has expressed,” Albanese sai
Setka told The New Daily on Tuesday he had the “utmost respect for Rosie Batty”.
“Every time I see Rosie Batty I want to give her a hug,” he said.
“I would rather be called corrupt. It’s not even an exaggeration of what I said. It’s an outright lie.”
He did concede he had said lawyers had told him laws had been skewed against men following the Victorian royal commission into family violence and Batty’s campaigns.
