Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

In fact, the exact opposite has occurred. Yesterday, we heard about Craig Johnston's balaclava rampage through a Melbourne office, which left the employees, including a woman who was five months pregnant, distressed and cowering in fear.

Following this act of thuggery, a number of high-profile members of the union movement actually defended Craig Johnston. After he was sentenced to jail, a group of union leaders created a Craig Johnston trade union support committee and issued a statement calling for Johnston's release, claiming that he was:

… only doing his job as a union organiser. We will be waiting there at the gates when he comes out.

One of the members of that committee was none other than Dave Noonan of the CFMEU. Even after Craig Johnston engaged in vicious acts of thuggery and intimidation towards women in their workplace and he was imprisoned, Dave Noonan stood by him. (Time expired)