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Cross River Rail authority boss takes the stand
Moving on along the timeline now, counsel assisting the inquiry Edward Gisonda gets to the first big money allocated in a state budget ($1.95 billion in the 2017 document).
But Infrastructure Australia then struck the project from its priority list, citing concerns the benefits of the business case were overstated.
After some brief discussion about news reports and early workplace agreements struck by the CFMEU on the Queen’s Wharf project, the inquiry now calls its first witness of the day.
Cross River Rail Delivery Authority chief executive Graeme Newton is sworn in, and his witness statement tendered.
Newton starts by outlining his extensive background in project work, including as a state director-general and Deloitte partner – from which he was seconded to the authority on its establishment in 2017, before being appointed permanently.
Usual union arrangements and the Palaszczuk government’s ‘big decision’
Counsel assisting the inquiry Edward Gisonda is now retreading some ground around the usual splitting of work on projects such as the Cross River Rail between the CFMEU and the Australian Workers’ Union.
The inquiry heard a bit about this in its first hearings late last year, with the AWU’s worker coverage leaving it as the main union for civil infrastructure.
On the Melbourne Metro project, which Gisonda notes was a similar type of project, workplace agreements with unions were split into station work, and tunnels.
The CFMEU, and others, were named in the station work elements, while the AWU alone was given the tunnel agreement.
Cross River Rail history lesson now dips into the shifting politics
Counsel assisting the inquiry Edward Gisonda, SC, now moves to the differing political positions on the project.
“Put it this way, there’s bipartisan acceptance of the bottleneck and of the problem, but the solution does not command universal political acceptance,” he says.
In 2012, the Campbell Newman-led LNP government is elected in the second term of the-then federal Labor government.
While there’s $715 million in the federal budget for Cross River Rail, a visit to Brisbane by then-federal opposition leader Tony Abbott sees him declare a government under him would not support urban rail projects.
Inquiry starts a history lesson on Cross River Rail
Gisonda gives a thorough background to the project, including a map from town planners in the 1960s that put forward a cross-river rail crossing in much the same spot that Cross River Rail has ended up.
From here, he goes through government media releases of the late 2000s covering issues of the Merivale Bridge bottleneck in passenger rail capacity and projected population-driven growth in demand.
Wood quips: “I take it these demand projections don’t take into account the idea of 50¢ fares, either.” They do not. Gisonda notes they don’t consider the impact of the pandemic, either.
The first federal money to go towards early planning ($20 million) was announced by then-transport minister Rachel Nolan in 2009. The state’s coordinator-general then declared it a significant project.
Cross River Rail to be one of the ‘biggest and most important’ case studies of the inquiry
And we’re off, for what counsel assisting the inquiry Edward Gisonda, SC, describes as “one of the biggest and most important case studies” the inquiry considers.
“The themes and issues that emerge from this case study are likely to sit front and centre of any report you ultimately prepare,” he tells Commissioner Stuart Wood AM KC.
Gisonda flags he will go into some detail to explain the economic, political and social background and context of the project to Wood.
“In that way, commissioner, you can better understand … the ambience of the circumstances in which the key players in this project found themselves,” he told the inquiry.
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A quick refresher on the road to this week’s public hearing block
Just jumping into the inquiry? Need a refresher on the ground covered so far? Here’s a recap of the powerful probe’s work to date.
The Crisafulli government launched the $19.7 million probe after reporting by this masthead and 60 Minutes into criminality, corruption and misconduct in the union and sector nationwide.
Due to provide a final report by July 31, the inquiry under Commissioner Stuart Wood has also faced questions of its own amid government attacks against the union and former Labor government.
This month: Current and former Workplace Health and Safety Queensland staff last week laid out their experience of CFMEU influence over the office the inquiry says it is looking into as one of four examples of “regulatory capture” by the union. Earlier, the inquiry held an unusual media conference outside a Gold Coast company with suggested links to Melbourne underworld identity Mick Gatto, and hinted at finding “more than we expected” when asked if they would need a time extension.
Last month: The inquiry held its first (of 10) three-day public hearing blocks for the year, with evidence from a senior civil construction industry figure and the CFMEU administrators’ former corruption-busting barrister. There was much focus on the latter’s recent Victorian-focused report, but also accusations a former Labor minister directed his department to negotiate with the union.
Late last year: Across hearings in November and December, the inquiry heard from government-appointed CFMEU administration figures about the former leadership’s use of violence to expand their “fiefdom” into civil construction. A second hearing block delved deeper into the why, how and who, driven by two union leaders on the receiving end, or in the middle of, the building union’s alleged efforts.
Who’s who in the stand this week
Welcome back for another day of our live coverage of the Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU and Misconduct in the Construction Industry.
After spending last week probing what senior counsel assisting put forward as the “regulatory capture” of Workplace Health and Safety Queensland by the CFMEU, the inquiry is set to turn its sights to a single project this week.
First on the witness list is the highest-level public sector figure so far, Cross River Rail Delivery Authority chief executive Graeme Newton. The inquiry has heard evidence the project was particularly troubled by the union.
Also listed is Vince Sanfilippo, major contractor CPB’s general manager for Queensland and Papua New Guinea, and Don Johnson, managing director of EIC activities – an engineering consultancy subsidiary of CIMIC, also involved in the project.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
