Refusal to work with CFMEU cost contractor major work, inquiry told

A since-ousted Queensland CFMEU leader told major contractor CPB that its bid for a significant state hospital expansion job failed because it did not work with the union.

CPB general manager Vince Sanfilippo gave a second day of evidence to Queensland’s CFMEU inquiry about the firm’s difficulty with the union and Labor policy on the $9.8 billion Cross River Rail project, and several other projects it bid for with varying success.

Sanfilippo told the inquiry he sat down with former CFMEU leader Jade Ingham at a Bowen Hills cafe in early 2024, after the contractor had failed to secure work upgrading the Townsville Hospital.

“As soon as we sat down, Mr Ingham opened the discussion by asking how CPB went in its tender for the TUHE [Townsville hospital] project,” Sanfilippo said on Wednesday.

“When I told him we were unsuccessful, he replied with words to the effect of, that’s what you get when you don’t work with the CFMEU.”

In September 2022, the Department of Energy and Public Works had rolled out new rules requiring contractors to submit a form for prequalification to apply for taxpayer-funded projects.

This process incorporated elements of the then-Labor government’s “best practice principles”.

CPB made its application two months later. At the time, the contractor was looking to bid on the Townsville University Hospital expansion and Bundaberg Hospital works.

After a back and forth, there was radio silence for weeks. Sanfilippo said the firm followed up in March 2023 because the tender deadline for two projects was approaching and much of its work was government-funded.

Following up again, after learning that other companies had been successful in their prequalification, Sanfilippo said there was a “distinct change in response and tone” from the department.

When executive director for strategy Logan Timms finally responded, he requested access to years of unredacted CPB board minutes.

Timms cited a fatality on a CPB project (involving an unlicensed driver losing control of a stolen car and killing a traffic controller) and the large number of regulator notices CPB had received on the Cross River Rail project – due to CFMEU campaigns.

CPB initially pushed back on the request, but eventually, it reluctantly agreed.

In late May, CPB was told it had failed prequalification and its bid for the Townsville Hospital upgrade, despite having built the original hospital and upgraded the city’s private hospital.

Timms suggested CPB meet with senior Workplace Health and Safety Queensland figure Helen Burgess, who the inquiry has heard was a “friend of the CFMEU”, to discuss how to lodge a new prequalification.

The next day, Sanfilippo and colleagues met with Burgess, who suggested the contractor provide future board meeting details around safety matters, as other unnamed companies had done. CPB agreed.

Ultimately, CPB secured work on Bundaberg Hospital on June 15.

Asked by the inquiry’s commissioner Stuart Wood if he had ever seen this before, Sanfilippo said: “Never.”

Asked why, Sanfilippo said: “I thought the safety record from TSD [Cross River Rail work] was being used against us, to withhold our prequalification to do building works in Queensland.

“We scratched our head [at] the simplicity of the solution compared to the journey we went through to get to that point. Just beggars belief.”

This process was in addition to other project bids, in which CPB pushed back – with varying levels of success – against agreement sought by state entities for conditions to flow on to subcontractors.

Sanfilippo said it was CPB’s position, based on legal advice, that this would have been unlawful under three federal rules and codes.

In relation to one, Wood said it appeared someone from the government had “learned from CPB’s failure to take the hint” on Cross River Rail that best practice principles equated to the type of agreement struck by the CFMEU on Queen’s Wharf.

He said it was made more explicit that agreements needed to adhere to the CFMEU-desired conditions.

Senior counsel assisting, Edward Gisonda SC, agreed that was an inference that arose, also suggesting it was a result of union “capture” of the public works department.

After brief cross-examination of Sanfilippo by lawyers for the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority and CFMEU administrator, CPB industrial relations adviser Michael O’Brien gave evidence about his experience with particular CFMEU figures on the rail project.

He named Dean Reilly as a figure who stood out for the frequency of his visits to the site and the fact he did not have permits to do so.

O’Brien also detailed the aggressive or improper behaviour of three of the 14 CFMEU-selected people hired by CPB as health and safety representatives after a 2023 “safety reset”.

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