Cross River Rail staff left ‘abandoned’ despite reporting union threats

Management figures on Queensland’s largest passenger rail project have described being abandoned by their bosses after flagging threats received during a 2023 CFMEU-led blockade of work sites, in which interstate muscle and weapons were said to be present.

One of the Cross River Rail contractor staff who gave evidence to the state inquiry in the union and construction sector on Thursday also told of a direction from higher-ups to not call police amid the days-long standoff sparked by a serious workplace injury.

The Commission of Inquiry has spent this week probing the multibillion-dollar state taxpayer funded project – bringing a new inner-city rail line in-part tunnelled beneath the Brisbane River – largely focused on an infamous brawl during an earlier blockade.

Middle-management figures within the CPB Contractors joint venture delivering the $9.83 billion project were among those called to give evidence on Thursday, and detailed their experience of the aftermath of a serious fall by a worker at the Boggo Road station site.

This incident on July 25, 2023, resulted in all work being halted across the project. CFMEU-led blockades of main site access points, including locking gates and telling workers arriving to go home, began from the morning of July 26.

A direction later the following day was given to site-based managers to stop work until further consultation on July 27, the then electrical superintendent for the northern tunnel section, Shane Rasmussen, said.

That night, Rasmussen told the inquiry he was confronted by a group of about 10 figures, including CFMEU organiser Matthew Vonhoff – who told him they knew how Rasmussen travelled to work and would “come and get me”. Others told of hearing similar threats.

On July 28, Rasmussen and colleagues who gave evidence on Thursday described an “escalation” in the union blockade of the sites with about 35 people positioned at the front gate of the northern tunnel portal site, some of whom wore balaclavas, with vehicles blocking their entry.

Site office-based staff including Rasmussen and some of those colleagues who entered via a back gate were said to have had rocks thrown at their vehicles and the building. Once there, he said he called an Australian Workers’ Union delegate, Jayce Emmerton.

Emmerton is said to have told Rasmussen, and other colleagues including senior electrical supervisor Peter Bennett, that he had been threatened and told to leave when he attempted to enter, by people carrying weapons including a machete, baseball bats, and at least one firearm.

None of those appearing on Thursday said they saw a gun, but took Emmerton’s remarks seriously. Bennett said he had been told by a shaken Emmerton he knew some of the group to be “part of a bikie group”, later described as Comanchero members from Victoria and Gold Coast-based members of another organisation.

Bennett said he then suggested they call police before Jamey Purvis, the project’s southern area manager filling-in for the northern area during that time, called more senior figures and ultimately made the call to evacuate the site.

Purvis, who also gave evidence on Thursday, said he had heard from multiple people that some of the men were “mercenaries” who had come from Victoria. He said he was told “not to call the police … a couple of days prior” by a human resources director named Chris Butler.

Work did not resume on any Cross River Rail site until 31 July, after the culmination of the “safety reset” meetings with senior project figures and unions, in which more than a dozen CFMEU delegates were agreed to be installed.

Rasmussen and Bennett were then directed to work from the project’s Milton office, with no explanation. Bennett wrote an email, tendered as part of his written statement, on August 1 outlining the incident in writing to Purvis, who escalated the matter to Butler.

Neither ever returned to the northern site, and Rasmussen worked from home until his contract was ended in January last year. Both described seeking ongoing effects on their mental health and seeking psychiatric support.

Bennett said he was told informally that the removal of the pair and their colleague, Peter Cullen – who gave separate evidence of public statements made about him by the union which had led him to launch defamation action until CPB support ceased – was “one of the stipulations of the reset”.

Bennett and Rasmussen were reluctant to make formal complaints without approval or direction from management, Bennett said. The pair, while working at Milton, did report the matter to Brisbane detectives and were told it was being investigated by outlaw motorcycle gang-focused “Taskforce Mayima”.

The unit was “dealing with related matters”, the pair were told. They provided written material for a formal record but did not ask police to commence an investigation because they were “uncertain about the support available from our employers and the project”.

“I’ve worked for CPB on some other projects, and I’ve worked for some quite large tier one infrastructure companies, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen something that was so, so inept of responsibility, and I still can’t believe it,” Bennett told the inquiry. “It’s disgusting.”

Commissioner Stuart Wood, while noting relevant CPB figures would be given an “opportunity to be heard on any final findings”, said it seemed extraordinary that the trio were “abandoned” – a word which both Cullen and Bennett also used to describe the situation.

Wood closed the hearing by suggesting he would write an interim report this month, to make a decision on the inquiry’s proposed reintroduction of a building and construction code and regulator.

A sixteenth block of public hearings by the now-$95 million inquiry will resume on October 27. The inquiry is due to report to government by December 2027.

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