John Setka refuses to stand down, says reported comments are ‘completely false’

John Setka says he will not be standing down as leader of the CFMEU and categorically denies claims he made offensive comments about Rosie Batty.

Mr Setka and his wife, Emma Walters, told Neil Mitchell their family was being used as political bait.

New Labor leader Anthony Albanese wants to boot Mr Setka out of the party over apparently “disgraceful” comments Mr Setka made a meeting.

“Everybody who was at the meeting knows that was is being reported is not what I said,” Mr Setka said on Wednesday.

“All I’ve done is repeated what lawyers told me about when the laws changed and one of the things that happened was that they spoke about the family royal commission and the incident with Rosie Batty, in that context.

“There was nothing disparaging about Rosie Batty. There was nothing saying Rosie Batty was responsible for the laws being changed, or anything in that context.

“That’s why it’s just disgraceful that people can take something like that and make something out of it that it’s not.

“It’s just dirty, gutter politics.”

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