In short:
Major infrastructure projects carried out under 12 years of Victoria's Labor government are under the microscope, as a royal commission investigates alleged corruption.
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commission → carry → corruption
The first week of hearings have delved into what Jacinta Allan as transport infrastructure minister knew about an alleged union takeover of a level crossing removal project.
The inquiry heard contractors believed her office had directed them to "bend the knee" to the CFMEU.
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office → delve → CFMEU
Melburnians were in a fourth COVID lockdown under then-premier Daniel Andrews when drama on one of his government's level crossing removals reached fever pitch.
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drama → reach → pitch
Sunbury locals would have noticed their train line was out of action due to 24/7 works to put a road under the tracks, but they couldn't have known how badly the project was going.
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project → notice → tracks
From April 2022, officials from the Construction Forestry and Maritime Employees' Union (CFMEU) had begun regularly entering the Gap Road job site in Melbourne's north to raise safety concerns.
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officials → begin → concerns
In the first week of June alone, union officials entered the site 31 times.
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officials → enter → site
On June 6, all work stopped while union officials were on site.
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officials → stop → site
With time and money on the line, project managers went to CFMEU headquarters the next day in search of an urgent solution.
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managers → go → solution
By evening, work had resumed.
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work → resume → evening
The CFMEU had demanded non-CFMEU workers on site be swapped for preferred hired labour, at extra cost to the taxpayer.
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workers → demand → taxpayer
The construction contractors had complied.
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contractors → comply → ?
More than four years later, what the Andrews government knew about these events and how it came to absorb the expense, is being combed through in forensic detail.
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it → know → detail
The Sunbury level crossing removal is the first case study of the royal commission into alleged corruption on the public projects, which began its public hearings on Monday.
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which → begin → Monday
'Direct line to Jacinta Allan'
CFMEU organiser Paul Tzimas's evidence made headlines on Wednesday after he told the commission about the pivotal meeting that ended the Gap Road work stoppage.
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that → make → stoppage
From the John Holland perspective, the goal of the meeting was to get works to resume.
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works → get → meeting
The commission heard the civil engineers bowed to the union's demands to swap from Australian Workers' Union (AWU) labour hire to CFMEU-linked labour to fill traffic management and health and safety representative roles.
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engineers → hear → roles
Mr Tzimas echoed earlier evidence from John Holland employees that the union made it clear that compliance with its demands was necessary to be considered for future civil contracts such as the Airport Rail Link.
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compliance → echo → Link
Asked if anything was said about the union's influence over the Victorian government, Mr Tzimas said senior union figure Joe Myles addressed it in the meeting.
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Myles → ask → meeting
"There was a mention or words to effect of having a direct line to Jacinta Allan's office," he said.
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he → be → office
It's an account that was disputed by Mr Myles's legal representative.
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that → dispute → representative
Multiple projects heads were quizzed during the week over their memory of the same meeting.
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heads → quiz → meeting
Former employee for Rail Projects Victoria, Peter Wilkinson, told the commission Ms Allan's office had made it clear to him contractors wouldn't get further work on state-run projects if they couldn't solve the industrial dispute.
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they → tell → dispute
"I suppose the words were, if they can't handle the industrials in Victoria then they can't have any more work.
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they → suppose → work
And clearly the state was was not in a position to offer any assistance," he said.
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he → offer → assistance
One project manager, Joe Aygur from the Rail Network Alliance, told the inquiry Mr Wilkinson had told him to sit down with the CFMEU, which was the advice he and three others had acted on when they turned up at CFMEU HQ.
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they → tell → HQ
"The fact that we were being told we had to go there and bend the knee if you like was extraordinarily galling," CPB engineer Stephen Villella told the inquiry.
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Villella → tell → inquiry
A briefing to Ms Allan from 2022 was tabled at the inquiry showing she was warned the extra costs of switching to CFMEU-preferred traffic management companies with steeper rates would blow out costs on major projects "well in excess" of $400 million.
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costs → table → million
Gold bracelet gift and bikies
Former union official Paul Tzimas also told the inquiry that during his tenure underworld-linked mediator Mick Gatto had given him a gold bracelet.
Mr Gatto had summoned him to a meeting and presented the valuable item, which he initially refused.
"It wasn't his way of trying to give me anything to have sway or to earn any favour," Mr Tzimas said.
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Tzimas → tell → favour
The former union official told the commission he had knowingly hired 11 men with bikie gang links into health and safety representative (HSR) jobs on government infrastructure projects.
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he → tell → projects
He said most of them had been employed onto public projects by a private labour hire company at the direction of the CFMEU.
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most → say → CFMEU
The inquiry heard Mr Tzimas gave an HSR job to Johnny Walker, who was a convicted criminal on parole from a manslaughter charge with bikie links.
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who → hear → links
Inquiry 'disrupted' by redactions, late disclosures
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Inquiry → disrupt → redactions
The commission revealed on Thursday that its investigative work was being undermined by the key government agency responsible for the Big Build.
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work → reveal → Build
The Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) had submitted a notebook about the Gap Road work stoppage with completed blacked out pages.
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Authority → submit → pages
Chris Young KC said, only when compelled did VIDA, on the morning of that hearing, re-submit the notes mostly un-redacted.
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VIDA → say → notes
He said it was "profoundly disappointing" senior current and former public servants "only engage with this commission when compelled to do so and seem otherwise content to do nothing".
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servants → say → nothing
Mr Young also said the commission had only been made aware two days earlier of text messages of the Gap Road work stoppage.
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commission → say → stoppage
He said the messages were written by former adviser to then-premier Daniel Andrews, Matt Toner, and chief of staff to the director general of VIDA, Matthew Phelan.
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messages → say → VIDA
Mr Young also told the inquiry former CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka had described Mr Toner during a union delegate meeting in 2024 as "a good asset".
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Setka → tell → asset
Commissioner Chris Kourakis said redactions and late disclosures of important information had "disrupted the orderly investigation" of the inquiry.
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redactions → say → inquiry
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
