‘Victorians have a right to know’: Fair Work chief backs independent Big Build probe

The national workplace regulator has thrown its weight behind holding an independent inquiry into alleged criminal behaviour on Victoria’s Big Build, telling a Senate committee that Victorians have a right to know what happened on these projects.

Fair Work Commission general manager Murray Furlong also supported the finding of integrity expert Geoffrey Watson, SC, that CFMEU corruption could have blown out construction costs by 15 per cent, or an estimated $15 billion, on the landmark projects.

Furlong’s comments came as Premier Jacinta Allan said she was appalled by the allegations contained in a key report into organised crime and graft on taxpayer-funded projects, but she has rejected calls for a royal commission or a coercive inquiry to probe the issue.

A damning report by Watson into CFMEU corruption was released on Wednesday detailing drug trafficking, systemic corruption, bikie gangs and sexual exploitation of women on projects funded by the Victorian government and the federal government.

In sections that were redacted from the final version of the report, he also criticised government inaction on the issue and provided a rough estimate that $15 billion may have been added to the cost of projects because of corruption.

In multiple sections of the report, Watson said an inquiry with coercive powers was needed to obtain the details needed to grasp the full scale of corruption taking place.

Speaking at a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday, Furlong was asked about the possibility of an independent inquiry and appeared to support the suggestion.

“There is an option available for others to commission a separate report or inquiry into alleged conduct into the Big Build sites and this would resolve some of the administrator’s reservations about Mr Watson’s content,” Furlong said.

“I also indicated [to CFMEU administrator Mark Irving] that this issue won’t and shouldn’t go away without accountability, that it impacts on every Victorian to varying degrees, the rest of the country, and I said that Victorians have a right to know.”

Furlong also did not dispute the report’s redacted findings that corrupt conduct could have inflated construction costs by 15 per cent, which Watson roughly estimated could equate to $15 billion.

“That figure is consistent with what I’ve heard from officials from the Victorian government,” he said.

Furlong said the figure was “within the range” of what information he’d been given, which included costs up to 30 per cent.

Allan said on Thursday that the CFMEU administrator had redacted this figure because it was not “well tested or properly founded”.

She also rejected calls for a royal commission or coercive inquiry, and said the federal Coalition had held a royal commission into union practices at the start of the 2010s which did not lead to any positive results.

“They had all the powers that the investigator is now saying he wants. It covers this same period of time,” Allan said. “It went for years and all that was an outcome of that was five failed criminal investigations, and it didn’t address the issue.

“The appointment of a federal administrator has addressed these individuals and gotten rid of these bad actors. That is the focus. That is the immediate action, not delaying it through a royal commission.”

Although Watson’s report does detail activity dating back to 2010, it emphasises that much of the alarming behaviour investigated ramped up as part of Victoria’s Big Build led by the Andrews and Allan governments elected after 2014.

The federal royal commission wrapped up in 2015, meaning it did not cover much of this period.

Allan said she had zero tolerance for behaviour listed in the report, such as sexual exploitation and drug dealing, and that in her time as transport infrastructure minister she had always referred complaints and allegations to authorities.

“I am deeply sorry that it happened,” she said. “To think if my daughter was working on this work site, I’d be sickened by that. “It’s appalling, appalling behaviour. There is no excuse for this behaviour.”

Allan did not respond directly to the accusation that government, police and the public service were broadly aware of issues on the Big Build.

Instead, she said she had always referred allegations of improper or illegal behaviour to relevant authorities.

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