Matt Johnston: It’s the taxpayer who bears the cost of a lack of action of alleged Metro Tunnel rorts

The Melbourne Metro Tunnel project, already $4bn over budget, is the subject of another probe into alleged “ghost shifts”. We’ve been here before and the lack of action is costing Victoria’s long-suffering taxpayers dearly.

If you are a taxpayer sick of seeing your money being thrown against the wall, look away now.

Another major probe has been opened into rorting on the $15 billion Metro Tunnel, including alleged “ghost shifts”

If this sounds familiar, it’s because there was an investigation into a similar scam in 2023, on the same project.

The 2023 rort, uncovered by the Herald Sun with the help of whistleblowers, revealed that workers employed by a labour hire firm were signing off on timesheets for multiple shifts on the same day.

Sometimes they would work part of the shifts, at other times there would be no one on site at all – hence the term “ghost shifts”.

The Metro Tunnel is being probe over alleged ‘ghost shifts’. Picture: Supplied

The project is already $4bn over budget. Picture: Supplied

The company, Morson, was kicked off the Big Build, and multiple investigations began – by the national rail safety regulator, rail operator Metro, and the project’s construction partners, John Holland and CPB.

The rail safety regulator found that fraud occurred, and that although no live rail safety breaches were found, which meant they could not pursue the case further, it was evident that there had been “falsification of timesheets for financial reward”.

The companies that had been ripped off – including John Holland, Metro, and CPB – were then left to their own devices to chase cash they were owed.

Perhaps they did, quietly, but they never said anything publicly, and questions from this masthead about what happened to the missing money went unanswered.

Then, all of a sudden, people on the Big Build said the case was closed, and everything was quietly swept under the carpet.

Is it any wonder, then, that the rot has set in again?

Or, perhaps, the rot was never actually cut out?

New allegations of ghost shifts now emerging show more money has been siphoned off to line someone else’s pockets.

The Herald Sun exposed the issue in 2023. Picture: Herald Sun

The latest revelations must embarrass the government into real action. Picture: Supplied

This must embarrass the government into action, to force accountability from builders rather than leave those giant multi-billion multinationals to sort it out.

There are now $4bn in cost overruns on the Metro Tunnel, which is a gargantuan project that has had thousands of staff on sites.

Labour hire companies have been everywhere, encouraged by the CFMEU that had until recently been vehement opponents of labour hire and the casualisation of the industry.

More will no doubt come out about why that union U-turn occurred, earlier this decade.

These alleged ghost shifts and time sheet rorts aren’t responsible for billions of dollars in overruns.

But the willingness to turn a blind eye to them, or just shovel costs through to someone, somewhere, is symbolic of a wider malaise across the Big Build.

Giant companies pass costs on, which get passed on, which get passed on.

And they always end up in the lap of the taxpayer.