Cbus manager Maria Butera appeared before the royal commission into trade union governance and corruption yesterday, facing questions about whether she co-conspired with now-dismissed colleague Lisa Zanatta to leak confidential member information to trade union, the CFMEU.
Ms Butera denied the allegations, but was told by counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar QC that text messages between the two Cbus employees presented evidence to the contrary.
In a legal document, Ms Butera declared she had “no prior knowledge, involvement or participation in the release of [the] information”, but the royal commission hearing heard that a text message from Ms Butera said: “I have made arrangements to drop off information to [CFMEU boss] Brian Parker’s PA.”
Ms Butera said she had no knowledge of the content of the information, explaining “it could be about anything”, but Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon QC said she had provided a “farcical answer”.
Commissioner Heydon also described another of Ms Butera’s answers as “comical”, when she explained that a text message sent to Ms Zanatta on the day the leaks took place – which asked “Everything okay?” – was not an indication that she “wanted to know whether [Ms Zanatta had] successfully delivered this secret material…to Mr Parker and the CFMEU”.
“I could have just been asking her if everything was okay,” Ms Butera said, prompting the rebuke from the commissioner.
Ms Butera also told the hearing she could “not remember” whether a text message that read “Lisa, did BP call you back, M?” was referring to Brian Parker at the CFMEU, sparking another strong reproach from Mr Heydon.
“What do you think it is? British Petroleum or something? You are not doing yourself justice, Ms Butera,” Mr Heydon said.
“You’re a highly intelligent, able woman. You really must pull yourself together and answer Mr Stoljar’s questions in a serious and responsible manner, which you have not been doing for most of today.”
Cbus CEO David Atkin faced the royal commission last week.
Agree Steve. The whole situation is disgraceful and reflects badly on industry funds and the unions as well. Ms Butera has a lot of industry friends though so I’m sure they will look after her – rightly or wrongly!
physical threats more likely than employment guarantees i reckon bill
I wonder who Ms Butera is protecting at CBus and who else knows more information? Mind you, if anything got to Royal Commission stage you’d reckon people would go above and beyond and be 100% truthful. Unless of course the Board or ‘officials’ have guaranteed her employment based on limited information being provided?
These responses epitomize the contempt the industry funds have for the public. They have been given a free rein to distort the truth for so long they seem to take the view the only defence is to keep the lies going. Consequently they cannot be relied on to clean up their own act – the Coalition needs to step in and audit their advertising claims, their PR campaign and the reluctance of the ABC to hold them to account.
When are criminal charges going to be laid against the CBUS officials and the CFMEU for a breach of the Privacy Act? Am I the only person in this country who thinks this?
So does Zanetta or Butera face any criminal prosecution for perjury, or is this another toothless tiger issue where the now known to be corrupt ISA staff can lie with impunity?
If there is no harsh penalty for lying, how you can you expect honesty from ISA workers such as these? Seems to be a ‘top down’ culture in those organisations…