CFMEU fight threatens to engulf hate speech bill as ministers launch broadside on corruption buster

Victorian Labor ministers have launched a blistering and personal attack on barrister Geoffrey Watson, SC, accusing the corruption expert of chasing headlines and describing his evidence that the government turned a blind eye to CFMEU corruption as florid ramblings.

The extraordinary comments prompted a fierce rebuke from Watson, who accused Police Minister Anthony Carbines of partaking in Trumpist politics and attacking him rather than the problems plaguing Victorian worksites.

The stoush has caused chaos for the government’s anti-hate legislation, with the Coalition informed the bill will be pulled from parliament to prevent the Greens from moving amendments to give the state’s anti-corruption watchdog more teeth. However, late on Wednesday a government spokesperson said it intends to push ahead with the bill on Thursday.

Watson’s Rotting from the Top inquiry was made public last week following revelations by this masthead that conclusions reached by Watson that were highly critical of Labor were secretly stripped from the report’s pages shortly before its release.

His redacted report accused Victoria’s Labor government of turning a blind eye to CFMEU corruption and organised crime on infrastructure projects at a cost to taxpayers of $15 billion. Watson then gave similar evidence at a Queensland inquiry.

Speaking outside Parliament on Wednesday morning, Carbines dismissed Watson’s evidence as “florid ramblings” that were lacking in facts, accusing the barrister of liking to get a “good headline”.

“It might be good for a quote, but he’s not much good when it comes to coming up with some facts,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

“When his florid ramblings become facts that can be tested in court, all well and good. But if you’ve got evidence, give it to Victoria Police and they’ll take action.

“I would have thought those with legal qualifications would have some respect for law and the courts.”

In an escalation of the tensions between the government and the corruption expert, Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny then doubled down on Carbines’ comments, saying it was reckless for anyone to make unfounded claims of a $15 billion cost to taxpayers from the Big Build.

“As lawyers, our professional credibility rests on evidence. It goes to who we are,” she said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.

“We are bound to make a clear distinction between allegation and proof, and the rule of laws depends on this.”

The government found an unlikely ally in underworld figure Mick Gatto, who was named more than 160 times in the report.

“If [Watson] said to me it was raining outside, I would want to go out and get wet. I promise you I wouldn’t believe a word he says,” Gatto told 3AW’s Jacqui Felgate.

“If you go online today you’ll see the attorney-general and the police minister are both bagging him and saying he’s a headline chaser. And you know, he’s making all this stuff up.”

Watson has hit back at Carbines, questioning why the minister was attacking him rather than addressing the problem.

“I’ve been very careful not to comment, but these remarks are out of hand and Trumpian,” he told The Age.

Premier Jacinta Allan said she had not seen Carbines’ comments, but said Watson had told a Queensland inquiry the $15 billion figure was a rough estimate.

“That information was put to the federal administrator … and on consideration the administrator has dismissed those claims as being unfounded,” she said.

Asked about Carbines’ comments, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese backed the CFMEU’s federal administrator Mark Irving.

“I’m not going to comment on comments by others that I haven’t heard and am unaware of the context,” he said on 3AW.

Watson’s comments that CFMEU corruption could have blown out construction costs by 15 per cent, or an estimated $15 billion, have been supported by Fair Work Commission general manager Murray Furlong.

The damning report by Watson into CFMEU misconduct, released last Wednesday, detailed a culture of drug trafficking, systemic corruption, and the sexual exploitation of women on state and federally funded sites.

In sections redacted from the final version, Watson further took aim at government inaction, estimating that corruption might have inflated project costs by as much as $15 billion.

The attack on Watson came as Allan faced another day of questioning over corruption on Big Build projects.

The premier refused to commit to a joint push by the Greens to grant the state’s anti-corruption watchdog, IBAC, “follow-the-money” powers. However, she stopped short of ruling out future reform.

The Greens intend to on Thursday move an amendment to an unrelated anti-hate speech bill currently before the upper house to establish these powers, a move the Coalition would support.

If passed, the bill would need to return to the lower house, where Labor holds the majority required to block the changes.

On Wednesday night, shadow attorney-general James Newbury said the government whip had told him the bill would be pulled from Parliament on Thursday.

“I can assure you we were all informed the bill was being pulled,” he said.

“The fact they advised us they were pulling the bill tells you the world of pain they are in at moment.”

Newbury also speculated that if the government did not outright pull the bill it could delay a vote on it until parliament rose for the day on Thursday. Parliament does not return until March 3.

An Allan government spokesperson insisted the bill was not being pulled.

Greens Leader Ellen Sandell said there was no reason the bill should not go ahead on Thursday.

“Labor and Jacinta Allan are going to extraordinary lengths to avoid it coming to a vote.”

The proposed changes – recommended by a parliamentary committee and requested by IBAC – would allow the watchdog to investigate how taxpayer funds flow through subcontractors and the labour hire firms frequently used on major projects.

On Wednesday morning, Allan accused the opposition and the crossbench of weaponising the issue and risking the delay of unrelated anti-hate laws introduced following the Bondi attacks.

“We are considering the [IBAC reforms] … they are important matters that deserve proper consideration,” she said.

“What they don’t deserve is being embroiled in a parliamentary stunt where the Liberal Party and the Greens are teaming up to delay and block the strengthening of our anti-hate laws.”

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson repeated previous calls to hold a royal commission into the corruption claims, backing Watson’s findings.

“Geoffrey Watson is an eminent legal mind … he handed down a report that identified the largest corruption scandal in Victoria’s history,” she said.

“If the police minister in this state isn’t taking seriously the corruption, the peddling of drugs, the use of strippers on these sites, the criminal nature of these allegations, then I think Victorians should be very concerned that this government is not taking these corruption findings seriously.”

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