Arrest of John Setka & Shaun Reardon

Published: 6 Dec 2015

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The CFMEU can confirm that John Setka and Shaun Reardon were arrested by police attached to the Royal Commission taskforce on Sunday morning.

Dave Noonan, National Secretary of the Construction Division also confirmed that "500 Swanston St is the address of the Victorian branch of the union where both men work from about 7am every week day. I thought the police might be able to Google that, but apparently not".

"The CFMEU has cooperated with every request from the Royal Commission and the police could have conducted their business at the office during working hours,” he said.

"The arrests were conducted in front of both families and reek of overkill.”

“The community can only hope that the rest of the case against the men is made as public as these arrests.”

Mr Noonan said treating union officials like fugitives on the run was obviously designed to create maximum political damage to the union with little regard for their families.

The CFMEU and its members understand and appreciate the important role that the police play, and are disgusted by their conduct and politicisation in these matters.

“The community expects more of the police. We should be able to trust that our police are not doing the grunt work of a Government desperate to mount an attack on the working rights of people in this country," he said.

“The Federal Liberal Government has taken 57 police and assigned them to a taskforce whose only achievements to date include two theatrical raids whose legality is in doubt, the prolonged questioning and harassment of staff in their homes, the failed pursuit of Johnny Lomax without any evidence and now, the hyper-staged arrests of two senior officers of the union.”

The union can confirm that the men will be pleading not guilty.