Bridge construction site party almost cancelled Riverfire, inquiry hears

The Queensland operations manager for the firm tasked with building Brisbane’s Olympic stadium hosted a Riverfire viewing party on the Kangaroo Point Bridge worksite that threatened to cancel the fireworks display in 2023, the state’s inquiry into the CFMEU heard on Wednesday.

BESIX Watpac Queensland operations manager Bradley Ross, who was not originally scheduled to give evidence this week, denied hosting officials at the prime viewing location to curry favour with the union.

Along with John Holland, BESIX Westpac formed the consortium that last month was all but confirmed as the builder of Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park, a project the CFMEU has vowed to build.

In his testimony on Wednesday, Ross said CFMEU site delegate Cameron Paul asked him if he could bring his family to the bridge worksite for the 2023 Riverfire, a request he granted after doing the same thing the year prior.

But Paul, the CFMEU’s 2020 Rookie of the Year, brought at least seven other union officials and their families to the site in 2023.

“Mr Paul contacted me and asked whether, at short notice, close to the event, whether it would be OK if some other people came along, which I agreed to,” he said.

Some members of the party went out on the under-construction bridge – none wearing protective gear – where they were spotted by water police.

An email tendered to the inquiry revealed that incursion on to the bridge site, within the fireworks exclusion zone, delayed the start of the show.

“We had an incident Saturday night which caused a delay in Riverfire starting, and very nearly caused it to be cancelled,” Brisbane Festival operations manager Christophe Broadway wrote to Rowland senior account manager Andrea Buckle, who in turn forwarded it to BESIX Watpac project manager Rowan Riggall.

“People were seen on the Green Bridge and the show was not allowed to start till (sic) they were clear.”

Riggall responded: “The personal (sic) entered the site through the fence where there was no security positioned. As soon [as] our security spotted them, they were moved on.”

But police body-worn camera footage shown to the inquiry on Wednesday showed that not to be true.

Police entered the site at the CBD end of the bridge, where they were met by Ross, and were taken out to clear the bridge. Along with Paul, that footage showed CFMEU officials Dean Rielly, who featured in Tuesday’s evidence, Dylan Howard, Hayden Jones, Cody Budgen, Jon Paul, Hoani Edwards and Dean Mattas.

There were also young families on the worksite, none wearing PPE and none formally inducted.

The inquiry heard Ross sat for an interview last week with inquiry lawyers, at which he estimated there were about 16 people present. But it was agreed the footage showed about 40 on the site.

Ross accompanied the officers out to the crane in the middle of the Brisbane River, where some of the CFMEU officials and their families had gathered. They were removed from the bridge before Riverfire could start.

Counsel assisting the inquiry Eddy Gisonda, KC, asked Ross whether the CFMEU had “gatecrashed” what was meant to be a family gathering.

“They’re powerful terms, but that’s probably a fair assessment,” Ross said. “I didn’t send an invite out to anyone other than my family.”

But Commissioner Stuart Wood appeared sceptical that Ross had not invited CFMEU officials on-site as a way to curry favour.

“That’s some quite hard evidence to accept, Mr Ross. Are you sure that’s right?” he said.

Ross: “Yes, I’m sure that I wasn’t trying to gain favour from the CFMEU by letting them watch the fireworks from our site. If I had have invited them, perhaps, but I did not.”

Wood: “Are you serious in saying that’s the differentiating point that I’m supposed to accept? To say that you weren’t trying to do them any favours because you say you didn’t invite them, Mr Paul did?”

Ross said it was “sprung on me at the last minute” and while he could have rejected their entry, that would have “probably done me a disfavour”.

“But I wasn’t trying to seek favour,” he said.