A powerful inquiry will investigate the CFMEU's "thug" culture of coercive, bullying, intimidation and illegal practices, a state government says.
The announcement follows the release of a damning report into the controversial building union's Queensland branch, which found it was ruthless in pursuit of political, industrial and financial power.
Premier David Crisafulli said a commission of inquiry was the most powerful tool the government had to shine a light on a broken system and a culture of intimidation.
"We owe it to Queenslanders to get to the bottom of the CFMEU's intimidation, violence and bullying with a commission of inquiry," he said on Sunday.
"The violence, misogyny and standover tactics from the CFMEU have no place in Queensland, and this is the first step in delivering the change that's needed."
A commission of inquiry can compel witnesses to give evidence and recommend charges.
The construction and general division of the CFMEU was placed into administration nationwide last year amid claims bikie and organised crime figures had infiltrated the organisation.
Barrister Geoffrey Watson, a director of the Centre for Public Integrity, on Thursday released the results of his three-month investigation into violence and intimidatory behaviour by union officials, a probe he suggested some CFMEU figures tried to stymie.
"There was an obstinate refusal to co-operate from some critical witnesses with connections to the CFMEU," he said.
"It seems, sadly, that CFMEU officials are afflicted with widespread memory loss … I fear this investigation only scratched the surface of the violence in the Queensland CFMEU."
Your Union Your Choice, a group set up by former CFMEU officials dumped when the union was forced into administration, rejected the report's findings, adding it was "less a rigorous investigation and more like an exercise in confirming a predetermined outcome".
"It is riddled with errors, based on selected and untested accounts and falls far short of the standard you would expect for such serious allegations," it said.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said Mr Watson's investigation was hamstrung by the reluctance of witnesses and victims to come forward over fears of retribution.
But he said commission of inquiry witnesses will be afforded protections and documents will be compelled to get to the bottom of "insidious militant behaviour that has terrorised Queensland for a decade".
Questioned on the cost of the inquiry, Mr Crisafulli said the government was working on the terms of reference and its timing.
He said there had been many examples of work sites being shut down for reasons, that Mr Watson's report had shown, were nothing more than a protection racket.
"Public offices stormed, women locked in rooms, independent family members harassed at where they work and where they play," the premier said.
Opposition Leader Steven Miles said it was the then-Labor government that pushed for the CFMEU to be put into administration and he welcomed the inquiry announcement.
"The allegations are shocking and they must be stopped," he said.
