Sydney Morning Herald
Tom McIlroy
For the full media release click here
Jewish leaders have called on powerful Victorian union boss John Setka to apologise for linking a new building code to Nazi Germany, describing his statements as hurtful and “grossly inappropriate”.
Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Jewish Anti-Defamation Commission, said Mr Setka was misguided in using references to the Holocaust and the Nazi Party for political “sloganeering”.
The controversial state secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union had described the federal government’s national building code as “an absolute disgrace” and argued that workers’ side allowances were under threat as part of the plan.
“It’s likened to Nazi Germany, some of the stuff they want to bring in,” Mr Setka said at an enterprise bargaining meeting in Melbourne on Wednesday.
“And it’s deliberately being brought in to, pardon my language, f— us right over. That’s what they’re trying to do.
“If these morons got re-elected again, they are coming after us, they’re going to come after your conditions, so our job at the moment is to lock up your conditions as soon as possible.”
Dr Abramovich said there was no place for Nazi comparisons in Australian political debate.
“No government policy should ever be equated with the Nazis or Hitler, and such grossly inappropriate references do an enormous disservice to history by diminishing the Holocaust, and are deeply hurtful to the memory of the millions of Jews and non-Jews that were murdered, as well as to survivors and their families,” he said.
“Such cheapening rhetoric devalues the courage and sacrifices made by veterans during World War II to defeat the Third Reich.
“While John Setka has every right to criticise the government’s National Building Code, it is simply unacceptable to draw any links between Hitler’s evil deeds and the government’s legislative agenda.”
He said the remarks were thoughtless and poisoned the election debate, calling on Mr Setka to apologise for seeking to invoke the Holocaust.
Both Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten criticised Mr Setka on Thursday.
Mr Turnbull called on Mr Shorten to distance himself from Mr Setka. The CFMEU is closely aligned to Labor and has donated to the party and to the Greens.
Later Mr Shorten described Mr Setka’s comments as “stupid” and said they added nothing to the election debate.
“The comment speaks for itself. It is a stupid comment,” Mr Shorten said.
“I thought it was stupid when Tony Abbott started baiting Labor with the use of the word ‘holocaust’ and I don’t approve of it, no matter what the background of the person saying it. Full stop.”