Former boxer and demolition man gets his day in court after refusing to bow to union demands.
It has taken 15 years to reach the moment of climax, when two bruisers, each committed to the destruction of the other, finally confront each other in the NSW Supreme Court. It begins at 10 o’clock this morning. The consequences are potentially far reaching.
In one corner will be a former boxer and demolition man, David Ballard, who fought in the 1970s as Charkey Ramon. He became Commonwealth middleweight champion and retired with a record of 33 wins, one draw and one defeat. His adversary will be a prominent union official, Andrew Ferguson, a member of a famous Labor Party dynasty.
Lawyers for Multiplex and the CFMEU have dished out plenty of pain to witnesses during this trial, Ballard v Multiplex, but now it is Ferguson’s turn. His career will be put through a forensic legal grinder by Ballard’s silk. Ferguson can expect to be in the witness box all day, tomorrow, and again after the long weekend. Because Charkey Ramon is looking for a knockout. He needs one. He has mortgaged his home to pay his legal fees; he is taking on not just big business but big labour, operating in tandem.
The key figure in the trial is Ferguson, an organiser with the CFMEU. He was the union’s NSW secretary before giving up the position last year in an attempt to become the fourth member of his family to be elected to Parliament. His quest for a seat in the NSW Legislative Council was washed away in the anti-Labor landslide. Now Ferguson must confront allegations that he is a corrupt union official who conspired with Multiplex to destroy Ballard’s demolition business because it refused to bow to union demands, with Multiplex accused of buying industrial peace through a scheme of cash bribes.
The overarching defence argument is that this is an attempt by Ballard to extract a settlement from Multiplex. This conspiracy theory, which appears to have been made implausible by an absence of evidence of collusion by witnesses, has been rendered threadbare by a parade of credible witnesses who once worked for Multiplex or the CFMEU.
A former CFMEU official, Craig Bates, has given evidence that he and Ferguson received payments from demolition companies who wanted to remain ”preferred contractors” by the union. In a sworn statement, Bates said Ferguson told him at a meeting in August 1995: ”We’ve got to do something about this Ballard bloke. We’ve got to get rid of him.”
A former finance director of Multiplex, Ian Widdup, has given a sworn statement that in a conversation with the chief executive officer of Brookfield Multiplex, Ross McDiven, he was told: ”I just had a conversation with Andrew Ferguson. All deals with Ballard are off.” In another conversation he claimed McDiven told him: ”Ferguson told me the union wants Ballard out of business.” Widdup also gave evidence that he received $750,000 from Multiplex, as a ”non-repayable loan”, in return for his silence over kickbacks to the CFMEU and over the Ballard matter. He provided details of cash payments of hundred of thousands of dollars to the union by Multiplex.
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