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The state Labor government secretly backed disgraced CFMEU boss Joe Myles as he engineered his union’s takeover of a key rail level crossing removal project in 2022, according to allegations contained within detailed statements project insiders have prepared for authorities.
One of the insiders wrote a memo at the time stating that the consortium carrying out the project, comprising John Holland and CPB, was warned that unless it buckled to CFMEU demands, it would miss out on winning the upcoming Melbourne Airport Rail project.
The revelation comes as an expert relied on by Premier Jacinta Allan and allied building unions to downplay claims of Big Build corruption has gone public to declare “a lot of public money” has ended up “in the wrong hands” and a Queensland-style commission of inquiry with clear terms of reference backed by royal commission powers is urgently required.
Professor David Hayward’s comments severely undermine use of his previous work by unions and Allan to shut down calls for an independent inquiry into waste and rorting on the government’s $109 billion Big Build program.
“The state government and its vast bureaucracy appear to have been content to wring their collective hands while doing nothing,” Hayward says in an opinion piece published by this masthead.
“It is not just the money that is of concern. We were sold that idea that privatising infrastructure would bring with it efficiency and taxpayer savings, when cost overruns, dubious characters, and high salaries alongside healthy profits seem to be the order of the day.”
Hayward’s strong intervention in the public debate comes as The Age obtained statements from two construction industry figures who dealt with various aspects of the Gap Road level crossing removal project in 2022.
The Gap Road project, in Sunbury, has emerged as a case study of Big Build wrongdoing allegations, amid claims this month that, in 2022, Allan’s office pressured the project consortium to cave in to CFMEU demands to employ a CFMEU-backed labour hire firm and CFMEU health and safety representatives on the project, despite this causing cost blowouts.
Last week, the owner of the labour hire firm, BK Labour, pleaded guilty to falsifying paperwork connected to cash withdrawals that police suspect may have been used as bribes of unknown persons. The police investigation in this respect is ongoing.
The written statements – which are unsworn and yet to be tested in any inquiry– obtained by The Age are from two figures who are not being named out of concern for their safety. The two had various dealings with the Gap Road project and are willing to assist an independent inquiry if one is established.
One of the statements was written by a now former senior employee of a Labor government contracting partner and includes a contemporaneous file note.
Dated June 8, 2022, it describes how “the actions of the state government and its agencies” in agreeing to the Joe Myles-led CFMEU takeover of the Gap Road site were “in breach” of workplace laws and should be referred to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.
The memo describes how the senior employee had been told a direction issued to the Gap Road project consortium “to meet with the CFMMEU [as the union was also known at the time]… was a ministerial direction passed on through RV [Rail Victoria]” public servants.
The consortium was also allegedly warned it would miss out on the upcoming Melbourne Airport Rail project if it did not agree to the union’s demands.
‘The actions of the state government and its agencies are in breach of the Building Code 2016 ... but also breaches the provisions of the Fair Work Act.’
Insider’s memo“The MAR (Sunshine to Albion package) would be awarded to Acciona instead,” the June 8 memo claims.
“The actual outcome is CFMMEU health and safety representatives (HSRs) have commenced on the project today and other delegates will commence soon … [and] going forward the project will only be able to use CFMMEU aligned subcontractors.
“The actions of the state government and its agencies are in breach of the Building Code 2016 in terms of coercion and freedom of association requirements, but also breaches the provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009.”
The second project insider has separately prepared a statement for authorities, in which he claims that, in mid-2022, he heard Myles state on several occasions how he had lobbied the Labor government to pressure the Gap Road contractor to cede to union demands or miss out on future projects.
Myles was sacked in mid-2024 amid the Building Bad scandal and was heavily criticised in the Watson report tabled in the Queensland commission of inquiry, but in 2022 he was the CFMEU’s most senior Big Build official.
“Joe Myles … [claimed he had] reached into … government to put pressure on the Gap Rd project team to do the deal and go and sit with the CFMEU, or else their position as being ear-marked to build the airport rail line was in jeopardy.”
This insider’s statement claims Myles said: “We’ve spoken with the government and we told them if RNA [the project consortium] don’t do the deal, good luck with building the Airport Rail Line.”
“It clearly was about being in a position to hold projects to ransom, in order to dictate which subcontractors get used and don’t get used. ‘Preferred subcontractors’ was the term thrown around and this was irrespective of whether they had a current EBA or not.”
Anti-corruption expert Geoffrey Watson, SC, listed Myles, who could not be reached for comment, as one of the key players in the rot of the union in his report.
Union sources, not prepared to speak publicly, said Myles backers in the CFMEU insisted his Gap Road campaign was solely aimed at improving safety and conditions for workers on the site, which prior to the CFMEU takeover in June 2022 was the turf of the rival and much weaker Australian Workers’ Union.
Jacinta Allan has previously denied the allegations of intervention by her office.
In a statement on Wednesday, Allan repeated her denial that her office had intervened in the dispute and, addressing the claims of the second insider, said they were “not only wrong – they do not amount to evidence that any action was taken”.
In a recent podcast appearance, the CFMEU’s now former political liaison officer Elizabeth Doidge – who is married to Myles – defended the union’s relationships with the Labor government, describing them as entirely appropriate.
“I had to have relationships with certain politicians and their officers, and of course you need political influence to be able to do that,” she said.
Doidge, who has also left the CFMEU, said the union worked with state Labor to affect public policy and influence “procurement laws, so the laws which talk about how government projects are run and health and safety on those jobs”.
Doidge could not be reached for comment.
