The hearing took place in the Federal Court at Canberra on 16 and 17 April 2007. On the second day of the hearing, the respondents admitted the following breaches of ss.298S (2)(a) and (b) of the pre-reform Workplace Relations Act 1996:
- On 9 February 2005, Mr Lanscar, and through him the CFMEU, advised, encouraged or incited a painting company to take discriminatory action against a number of self-employed painters who had been engaged on The Avenue project. Mr Lanscar advised, encouraged or incited the painting company to refuse to make use of the services offered by those painters, because they were not members of the union. Lanscar told the painting contractor that he would direct the head contractor on the project to use other painters.
On 9 February 2005, Mr Lanscar, and through him the CFMEU, threatened to take industrial action against the painting company with intent to coerce it to take discriminatory action against the painters, namely to refuse to make use of their services, because they were not members of the union.