The lazy explanation for the collapse of the Crown case against union bosses John Setka and Sean Reardon would be to blame the cunning union barristers who used their tricks to trip up the key witnesses – two executives from concrete firm Boral.

This explanation does not stack up.

Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union Victorian secretary John Setka, and Shaun Reardon (rear) after his blackmail charges were dropped. Credit:Justin McManus

It is inexplicable that no one who pushed for blackmail charges to be laid against Setka and Reardon applied the sort of blow-torch scrutiny to the central witnesses that they would inevitably face when the case reached a committal hearing.

So it’s hard not to wonder if a desire to bag the biggest union scalps in the country blinkered the judgment of those who sought to criminalise what the union movement always insisted was industrial conduct.