Mr Abbott last month accused John Setka - assistant Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union - of turning up at the homes of builders uninvited. The CFMEU said Mr Abbott had implied that Mr Setka was trying to ''stand over'' people.
''Because so many of you have got to go on to sites every day and you've got to deal with the John Setkas of this world every day and the last thing you need is home visits,'' Mr Abbott said at a Master Builders Association of Victoria conference on February 10.
''Those home visits we know take place. We know they take place because people like Mr Setka have told us that they take place.''
The comments, broadcast on Sky News, were in response to a question on how employer groups should campaign to save the Australian Building and Construction Commission from being scrapped by Labor.
They came just two days after a criminal case against Mr Setka collapsed after building watchdog inspectors admitted destroying evidence and changing key parts of their stories. As a result, a number of assault-related charges against Mr Setka were dropped and
he was convicted and fined $750 for behaving in an offensive manner in a public place.Slater and Gordon's Ben Hardwick wrote to Mr Abbott on February 21 demanding damages, a full retraction and costs within seven days. He wrote that comments were ''highly defamatory'' and imputed Mr Setka engaged in ''thuggery''.
Last night, Mr Abbott's office did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.
The CFMEU's national construction secretary, Dave Noonan, said legal action would be taken and said the comments from Mr Abbott were a ''blatant lie'' and an ''outrageous smear''. ''Tony Abbott who yesterday [Sunday] I saw on television talking about the importance of politicians telling the truth has told a blatant lie which he has calculated to injure Mr Setka's reputation,'' Mr Noonan said.
''He has said that John Setka not only visited people at their homes but that he had admitted to doing so, and both those allegations are false,'' he said. ''The implications of his statements are very clear, that he has done so to stand over people and intimidate them.''
Mr Noonan said Mr Abbott needed to ''be held to account in front of the courts if he is prepared to defame other people''.
In his comments to the Master Builders, Mr Abbott spoke of how senior building managers opposed his bid, as a Howard government minister, to set up the Cole Royal Commission into the building industry.
The fallout from the royal commission was the creation of the ABCC, which its advocates say has boosted productivity and reduced industrial action in the industry. The Gillard government is close to having it replaced with an inspectorate with watered-down powers.
Mr Setka has been anointed to be the next secretary of the Victorian branch of the CFMEU, one of Australia's richest and most powerful unions. In 2003,
he was convicted and fined $500 after threatening to ''fix up'' a Grocon manager.Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/abbott-to-be-sued-over-home-visits-comments-20120305-1uecg.html#ixzz1uvzVqrgT
That report is from 6 March.
Was he convicted and fined for behaving thuggishly? Yes. Did Abbott say what he did after Setka's conviction and fining? Yes.
Is he the next boss of a union? Seems so.Is this a case of attack as the best defence? Seems so.
Funny how, when speaking to builders about the CFMEU, when someone says 'home visit' everybody things 'thugggish standover tactics'. When Craig Thomson said 'home visit' it meant something entirely different. Unless he called Madame Lash.
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