This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Controversial union boss John Setka has told the federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, to “grow some balls”, amid the latter’s no-show at Victoria’s Labor party conference.

Hours later, some delegates, including from the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union, walked out on Albanese’s deputy, Richard Marles, as he prepared to address the event.

Marles did not acknowledge the walk-out on Saturday and paid tribute to the state’s trade union. He also spoke about Labor’s crushing defeat in the May election and the federal party’s recent postmortem about what went wrong.

The review found a cluttered policy agenda and former leader Bill Shorten’s unpopularity were partly to blame.

“It was thorough and thoughtful,” Marles told the party faithful. “It gave us the answers to the questions about what went wrong and it contains within it the lessons that we must learn going forwards.”

He also paid tribute Shorten, who was at the conference, saying he had been a unifying force who led the Labor movement “wonderfully”.

Albanese had denied his non-attendance at the annual meeting in Melbourne was sparked by threats of a union walkout.

But the no-show prompted Setka to accuse him of turning his back on union workers.

John Setka (@CFMEUJohnSetka) @AlboMP says he supports the working class yet he doesn’t have the decency to show up and face the workers reps at the ALP state conference in Victoria. I’m growing a Mo for Movember - how ‘bout you grow some balls Albo…

“[Mr Albanese] says he supports the working class yet he doesn’t have the decency to show up and face the workers reps at the ALP state conference,” Setka tweeted at the start of the conference on Saturday.

“I’m growing a mo for Movember – how ‘bout you grow some balls Albo.”

The boss of the construction union’s Victorian division was booted from the Labor party last month.

It came after he was convicted of harassing his wife and accused of saying the work of anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty meant men had fewer rights.

Albanese has previously accused Setka of bringing “the Labor party and the labour movement into disrepute”.

“Mr Albanese’s ongoing lack of support for Australian workers furthers supports my decision to resign from the Australian Labor party,” Setka said in a statement on Saturday.

At the conference, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said a “families fund” would be established to support Victorians whose loved ones died at work.

The fund is part of a $10m package to support workplace manslaughter laws currently before the state’s parliament.

About $4m of that will be put into a fund for families of workers who die or are injured at work, Andrews said.

A dedicated unit will also be set up within WorkSafe Victoria to investigate and prosecute workplace manslaughter cases.

The laws have passed Victoria’s lower house and Andrews hoped they would get through the upper house in a few weeks.