Two construction workers die in Queensland as CFMEU continues in administration

The Socialist Bulletin Staff - 8/12/2025

AS the Queensland Liberal National government continues its partisan investigation on the Construction, Forestry, and Maritime Employees Union, one of Australia's most militant and worker-centred unions, two construction workers have died while at work, Defend the Unions has reported today.

The union was undemocratically placed into administration by the so-called Labor government last August, and most of its elected officials were fired by the new administration at the time, despite almost all of them not facing criminal charges.

Since last August, the CFMEU has operated at a much-reduced rate, with a large amount of members' dues going to inflating the pockets of Administrator Mark Irving, and other Labor and ACTU-affiliated officials who now inhabit the CFMEU's leadership positions. Irving, who takes $643,640/year from CFMEU members, spoke at the Liberal National inquiry into the CFMEU in Queensland in November, giving the Queensland LNP further ammunition to use against the union, as well as other unions.

Not long after Irving's speech to the Liberal National inquiry, two construction workers, one aged 45 and one aged just 15, were tragically killed on the job. Beau Bradford, so early in his life, was killed instantly on Monday when he was hit by an object that fell from a concrete pump truck. This horrible incident occurred at a site in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. 

This shows, in the saddest, most shocking way, that strong unions are desperately needed in the current stage of capitalism, and that destroying those unions will result in cuts to safety.