John Setka admits to campaign against AFL umpiring chief, but says his future is too uncertain to pay financial penalty

November 6, 2026 — 7:07pm

He was one of the most powerful and well-connected men in Victoria as the head of the CFMEU. Now John Setka is retired, caring for his elderly mother and worried how much money he’ll have left after his divorce.

That was the picture painted of the 62-year-old in the Federal Court on Friday, where Setka admitted to breaching workplace laws.

Setka is fighting to avoid a hefty financial penalty for what the Fair Work Ombudsman said was a remorseless and public campaign against the AFL’s umpiring chief, Stephen McBurney, who had participated in more than 50 proceedings against the CFMEU during his time with the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

The court heard Setka called for McBurney’s sacking during news interviews, media statements and a Facebook post saying he was “(not) wanted dead or alive”.

“This is a very, very serious contravention,” Marc Felman, KC, for the ombudsman, said. “It’s not someone coming onto a worksite swearing inappropriately at a safety manager.”

The court heard Setka had made affidavits claiming he wasn’t really trying to get rid of McBurney and instead echoing the thoughts of union members.

However, Felman said Setka’s statements were not isolated or off the cuff, and instead part of a calculated 14-day operation between May 31 and June 14, 2025, that contravened sections 340 and 355 of the Fair Work Act.

Setka maintains he did not initiate the media approaches, and he had responded to a request to be interviewed by The Australian because “members expected the union to speak up”.

But Felman said the former union boss went on to provide interviews to other news outlets and send statements of his own free will.

“Presumably, he wasn’t coerced or forced to go on 3AW,” Felman said. “He then goes to 6PR in Perth … Nine News … The Age newspaper ... and then he goes again … to The Australian.

“There can be no question this is a media campaign.

“The idea that he did not initiate any mainstream media campaign is not consistent with reality.”

Setka stood down from his position as CFMEU chief after this masthead launched the Building Bad investigation into the union’s links to organised crime and its culture of intimidation.

The union was subsequently placed in administration over the concerns raised in the investigation.

Both Setka and the CFMEU accepted the workplace contraventions had occurred.

Margo Harris, for Setka, denied the contraventions were deliberate or calculated.

In addressing the Facebook post, Harris said it was a common technique used by the union at the time against whomever they were campaigning.

“This time it was against Mr McBurney,” Harris said.

“There is no evidence that Setka actively sought the attention of the media – the media came looking.

“He’s paid a price.”

But when pressed by the judge on whether her client said “yes” to whether he wanted McBurney sacked live on radio, Harris agreed and said encouraging the AFL to do so was unlawful.

She said her client was currently unemployed and undergoing divorce proceedings with his current financial situation unknown.

McBurney led the powerful construction watchdog from 2018 to 2023 after being appointed by the Turnbull government to a five-year term. The ABCC was stripped of its powers shortly after the Albanese government was voted into power in 2022. It was officially closed in 2023. McBurney joined the AFL in March 2024.

In a statement to the court, Setka said he believed the AFL was a working man’s sport.

“[McBurney] was the fox in the hen house when he was the ABC commissioner … now he is in his spare time the fox in the hen house in their favourite game,” Harris said.

In a statement compiled by current CFMEU administrator Michael Crosby, AM, he acknowledged union reform was yet to be completed and that some members had been terminated for refusing to sign a statement of expectations.

Andrew White, for the CFMEU, said there had been a mass turnover of personnel from the union since an administrator was deployed with 292 officers automatically terminated and a further 150 employees leaving.

A further 39 of the 46 former union employees who received civil penalties had also since left, the court heard.

This, White said, had given the union an “opportunity for renewal” with a “new robust form of unionism” taking hold. Changes, he said, now included an expectation that no one used menacing behaviour amid an earlier, deeply rooted culture of non-compliance.

In admitting the contraventions alleged, White called for any financial penalty to be less than $20,000, noting the maximum fine neared $100,000.

Felman noted that as part of the CFMEU overhaul, employees now had to sign the new statement of expectations, but that those expectations did not include a provision that organisers comply with the law.

“One would have thought for an organisation like the CFMEU, that would be in the top three, given its history [of non-compliance].

“It’s a body that’s reforming, not a body that’s reformed.”

Justice John Snaden will hand down any financial penalties to be issued at a later date.

The judge, though, noted that Setka probably wasn’t the first person to call for the sacking of an umpire.

“There is a little bit to unpack,” he said.

The royal commission into corruption on government building sites resumes on Monday.

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