CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Pre-polling has begun around the country, as Australians peel off from their smoko breaks and fire off their early votes for the 2025 Federal Election.
North Brisbane CFMEU member, Hector Hapeta (45) is one of these voters.
He says this election is a tricky one.
There’s no way he can vote for Peter Dutton. For one, he knows the Liberals think trade unions are the enemy of the state. And two, Peter Dutton used to be a cop and most likely spent his time in the police force taking great pleasure in locking up heavily tattooed Maoris like him.
But he can’t vote for Albo either. Because Albo betrayed him.
This follows close to two years of hostile relations between the Labor government and Australia’s most powerful trade union.
Once recognised as Labor’s most reliable voters, the unionised tradies might cause some upsets in the marginal Queensland seats this election.
In September last year, over half a million different trade union members from an array of different organisations gathered in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney in support of the CFMEU, which was forced into administration by the Federal Government.
At least 270 CFMEU officials were removed from their positions in the union in the wake of allegations by Nine newspapers and the 60 Minutes program that suggested several construction union members from the Melbourne branch had links to bikie gangs.
The fact that this union was placed into administration before the police were even able to confirm the allegations that were tabled during the media report only poured petrol on the fire, as Labor’s once most rusted-on voters accuse both the Federal and State Governments of ‘a betrayal that will not be forgotten, nor forgiven’
This leaves Hector between a rock and a hard place because Labor has always been the party for him.
He’s obviously not going to vote for Clive Palmer because he seriously questions the motivations of a billionaire mining baron who refuses to pay his workers in the Queensland Nickel Mine.
And as an immigrant, One Nation gives him the shits.
“Bro… I think it’s going to have to be the Greens aye” mutters Hector, as he confronts a brutal identity crisis that sees him now aligning with the politics of bong-smoking uni students and cry baby vegans.
“Never thought I’d see the day. But yeah. Free the refugees. Let’s save the environment and fuck the landlords”
“Power to my queer leftie brothers and sisters.”
“At least those cunts turned up to the march”
