Smith said on Monday that the union’s national office would assume all senior executive powers of the Victorian branch and that a “leading legal figure” would investigate credible allegations of wrongdoing.

That does not go far enough.

What is needed at the very least is that a genuinely independent administrator be appointed – not Smith – along with a group of credible union people with deep experience to temporarily run the branch.

They would be the only people able to take the action needed to clean up the union.

That includes telling senior bikies they can no longer represent workers in the important role of delegates, a position at odds with Smith’s public statements so far.

The appropriate action also includes cleaning up its branch committee of management and standing down senior officials such as Derek Christopher, who is the subject of a serious corruption investigation. An overhaul is needed.

Setka ran the union as a despot, striking fear into staff and opponents, while for years boasting of his friendship with underworld figure Mick Gatto.

He will go down in history as one of Australia’s most discredited and notorious unionists.

It was fitting he slinked out of power late on Friday afternoon when the reality of what he had created finally caught up with him. He has left his union in ruins.

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He only survived this long – in particular after his conviction on domestic violence offences in 2019 – through his enablers from the national union and among key figures in Victoria’s union and Labor Left, including the Victorian Trades Hall Council and Electrical Trades Union.

They have all played a significant role in the terrible situation this key union now finds itself in.

The CFMEU, and its predecessor, the Builders Labourers Federation, won considerable gains for workers and struck out as a key voice on the left on social issues, whether it was green bans to protect iconic sites slated for demolition or to campaign for racial and social justice.

It was hated by the establishment for its militant politics. Under Setka, the union has cast away nearly all of these political positions.

Instead, Setka has left his union looking more like a bikie gang than a vitally important trade union. Building workers deserve much better.

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