A company run by brothers known to police and championed by the CFMEU has ballooned into one of NSW’s biggest labour hire operations, and construction giant John Holland Group has agreed to make it a preferred supplier.

With the union’s backing, the company, Zenith Recruitment, has won lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts. A leaked internal document suggests the John Holland Group struck a secret memorandum of understanding last October with the union to only source labour hire from three CFMEU-preferred companies, including Zenith, on the taxpayer-funded $1.7 billion M7-M12 project.