Former CFMEU administrator Mark Irving returns to inquiry <\/a><\/p>\nFormer CFMEU administrator Mark Irving KC has told an inquiry the union protected its members by engaging with companies linked to organised crime.<\/p>\n
“I did not have a personal relationship with Mr Ingham and I do not know how he would know about my children’s activities or locations,” she said.<\/p>\n
The comments prompted Ms Yeates and her husband to change how their daughter travelled to school, arranging for an older sibling to drive her instead.<\/p>\n
Ms Yeates said the union knew about the new arrangement, telling the inquiry that an associate of Mr Ingham later remarked that her child was “now getting a lift to school”.<\/p>\n
She said in another incident, a different associate of Mr Ingham’s made an unsolicited comment about the high prevalence of accidents involving P-platers.<\/p>\n
“My daughter was a P-plater at the time,” she said.<\/p>\n
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Ms Yeates said she decided against making a police complaint because of a “strong fear of retribution”.<\/p>\n
She told the inquiry she felt like she was being “stalked” by the CFMEU.<\/p>\n
“I believe that they were following my family,” Ms Yeates said.<\/p>\n
“How could you look at it any other way?” Commissioner Stuart Wood KC remarked.<\/p>\n
Ms Yeates said she resigned from the public service, believing it was the only way to protect her family and make the alleged intimidation stop.<\/p>\n
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Senior Counsel Assisting Eddy Gisonda KC said Ms Yeates was an “entirely innocent victim”. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Counsel assisting the inquiry Eddy Gisonda KC described the alleged conduct towards Ms Yeates as “disturbing, creepy and inexcusable”, calling her an “entirely innocent victim”.<\/p>\n
“She was a model public servant acting without fear or favour with an unblemished record,” Mr Gisonda said.<\/p>\n
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has told parliament Ms Yeates’ allegations are “disturbing”.<\/p>\n
“Amanda Yeates has given testimony that she raised these issues directly with former minister Mark Bailey at the time,” Mr Bleijie said.<\/p>\n
“She said \u2026 no action was taken. She also said \u2026 he [Minister Bailey] wanted me to keep the CFMEU happy.”<\/p>\n
‘That’s how I’ll treat you’<\/p>\n
Ms Yeates also described being subjected to routine degrading abuse by Mr Ingham and former secretary Michael Ravbar, claiming they called her “incompetent” and “lazy” and referred to her and a female colleague as “fat cats”.<\/p>\n
At one meeting, Ms Yeates said she tried to draw a line in the sand, telling the union bosses she would not tolerate being sworn at.<\/p>\n
She said the pair responded by branding her a “c**t” four times.<\/p>\n
When she objected, Mr Ingham allegedly told her: “If you’re going to act like a c**t, that’s how I’ll treat you.”<\/p>\n
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Ms Yeates said the hostility began from her first encounter with Michael Ravbar in 2020. (ABC News:\u00a0Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n
Ms Yeates said the hostility began from her first encounter with Mr Ravbar in 2020 at a meeting with then-transport minister Mark Bailey and some of his advisors.<\/p>\n
“Mr Ravbar, at a point after he sat down, turned to me and said: ‘You’re a woman, get me a glass of water,'” Ms Yeates said.<\/p>\n
“I haven’t had that behaviour since the 1980s so I guess I was a bit shocked.”<\/p>\n
She said Mr Ravbar also directed his abuse towards Mr Bailey, allegedly telling him: “You are a f**king s**t minister.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A high-ranking former Queensland public servant has broken down while describing how the CFMEU allegedly “stalked” her children,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[128165,22,21,1003,3223,11541,1010,3225,3224,5725,105815,2150,128164,1009],"class_list":["post-81395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-amanda-yeates","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-cfmeu","tag-commission-of-inquiry","tag-construction-sector","tag-inquiry","tag-jade-ingham","tag-michael-ravbar","tag-misconduct","tag-public-servant","tag-public-service","tag-qld-cfmeu","tag-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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