CFMEU scandal: Government rejects plan to get bikies off Victoria’s building sites

The Allan government has rejected an opposition proposal to force building companies bidding for government work to ensure employees have no links to bikie gangs or organised crime.

The scandal engulfing the CFMEU was the dominant theme as state parliament resumed on Tuesday, with Premier Jacinta Allan defending her government’s response including the commissioning of a review of the state’s building industry by bureaucrat Greg Wilson.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on Tuesday defended her government’s record on the CFMEU.Credit: AAPIMAGE

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the government’s response so far had changed nothing on Victorian work sites since a joint investigation from this masthead, the Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes revealed intimidation, alleged corruption and the presence of bikie and organised crime figures on building sites.

“So far the premier has done nothing, not one single thing to remove bikies, and other organised criminal elements from Victorian taxpayer funded worksites,” he said.

“She’s said a few words to indicate that she’s aware of the issue but no substantive measures are in place to actually deal with the matter.”

Opposition Major Projects spokesman David Southwick (left) and Leader John Pesutto (right).Credit: The Age

The Allan government voted against the Coalition proposal on Tuesday. Opposition major projects spokesman David Southwick said the proposal was designed to “boot bikies from the Big Build.”

“Many individuals have come forward and have said that the Big Build and government-funded taxpayer construction sites need to be cleaned up,” he said.

Under the opposition’s proposal companies would have to ensure that people employed on their sites were not current or former members of bikie gangs or had serious convictions. The same responsibility would fall on unions and other employee organisations for their site entry permit-holders.

Permit-holders are already under a fit and proper person test administered by the Fair Work Commission.

The plan would also have banned people who are associates of a member of a criminal organisation or a declared organisation, although Southwick said this would not include spouses.

Information would have been provided through a compulsory check with Victoria Police, and spent convictions would not be caught under the regime.

Southwick said the measure would not be a lifetime ban and would be targeted at serious offences.

“Well, we want to make sure that we don’t have bikies on building sites, plain and simple. Now, the test for this will be writing to the chief commissioner [of police] and seeing if that individual is still identified as part of an organisation,” he said.

The opposition’s draft legislation included a list of 28 criminal organisations whose members would be banned including the Bandidos, Commancheros, Finks, Hells Angels, Mongols and Rebels motorcycle gangs.

Allan has pledged to bring forward her own legislation giving greater powers to the police to tackle bikie gangs through anti-association laws and said on Tuesday that the bill, which police have sought for years, would be brought to parliament in August.

She also could not say whether individuals identified by this masthead in the Building Bad investigation were still on Victorian government sites, insisting that was a matter for building contractors.

That included CFMEU officials Joel Shackleton and Gerry McCrudden who were captured on video abusing and threatening a contractor on a large project funded by the Victorian and federal governments.

“These are exactly the matters that we are looking at strengthening in Victoria. The processes around how all government agencies and departments work with our construction companies and its employee representatives because it’s not acceptable for these sorts of people to be on worksites, it’s not acceptable for this type of behaviour,” Allan said.

Treasurer Tim Pallas, who is also industrial relations minister, said none of the issues of alleged criminality revealed in the investigation had been previously raised with him.

Pallas said that he had removed former CFMEU secretary John Setka from the government building construction industry advisory committee.

Asked if Setka’s appointment to that body was sensible in the first instance, Pallas said workers had rights to elect their representatives.

“That does not mean that they have license to act inappropriately or illegally,” he said.

Pallas also said he did not know if McCrudden and Shackleton were still working on state government sites.

“We want to make sure that we have strong, efficient and transparent unions... in this industry, but what we will not tolerate is illegal behaviour by these unions,” he said.

Pallas said he had previously heard concerns about the behaviour of the union but they did “not go to illegality”.

“This is a robust industry that has many disputes and disagreements, and they use colourful language and behaviour that’s one thing. What we saw [in the Building Bad investigation] were allegations of illegal conduct,” he said.

The union’s lengthy record of fines and unlawful industrial activity, he said, was an indictment on the federal system and it was not the state’s role to “double-check” that.

Shackleton’s behaviour was also raised in parliament with Upper House leader Georgie Crozier asking Labor ministers had taken any steps in response.

Labor at state and federal level has said it will not accept donations from the CFMEU’s construction arm until its governance is reformed.

Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell was asked repeatedly on Tuesday if her party would accept CFMEU donations.

Initially, she said the party had not accepted donations from the CFMEU for a decade, that donations were a matter for the party and that the union would not make donations while it was in administration.

She then said the Greens were not taking CFMEU donations “at the moment” and the question should be directed to the party.

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