‘Clear breach’: Mick Gatto’s gifts fuelled concern he took union by the wrist

One glittering Versace gold bracelet arrived at a senior union official’s house. Others were handed over in restaurants and coffee shops.

One was given to a CFMEU boss who was pressed to return it after accusations he had disrespected the notorious Melbourne underworld figure. Call it the story of Gatto’s gold.

Underworld figure Mick Gatto.Credit: Justin McManus

This masthead’s ongoing investigation into underworld involvement in Australia’s construction industry has confirmed that Gatto gave more than a dozen Versace gold bracelets to Victorian CFMEU officials he considered his closest allies or to those he wanted onside, including the most powerful branch leaders along with the union’s up-and-comers.

Versace chains are favoured among the underworld and retail from between $1000 to several thousand dollars, depending on the design and any extras, such as diamonds.

The recipients included former assistant secretary Derek Christopher, who remains the subject of an unrelated police investigation into suspicions he received kickbacks from large building companies in return for favourable treatment, and Joe Myles, the ex-union vice president accused of helping to recruit bikies into the CFMEU.

Union sources, speaking anonymously out of concern over possible retribution, said it was Myles who offended Gatto and was asked to hand his gift back.

A Versace gold bracelet.Credit: Versace

The revelation of Gatto’s gold gifts marks another scandal for a union drowning in scandals and puts Albanese government-appointed CFMEU administrator Mark Irving in an invidious position as some of the gift-takers are still key officials helping rebuild what was once the country’s most powerful union, after the Building Bad investigation by this masthead.

Rules cover union officials accepting gifts from players in the industrial system to avoid perceptions of conflicts of interest or undue influence.

Quizzed about the gold bracelet affair on Monday, a CFMEU administration spokesperson confirmed the gifts were made and said in a statement that “these kinds of gifts from bosses or so-called industrial mediators, even if declared, are not appropriate”.

“It is clear this occurred under the previous leadership, but will not be tolerated in the CFMEU, and is a clear breach of the code of conduct. Union leadership and staff must be, and seen to be, above reproach,” the statement said.

The administrator’s statement did not say why any union official would think it was appropriate to take a gold Versace bracelet from Gatto or how those who still worked there could be trusted to rebuild the battered union.

According to six industry sources, including construction company figures who know some of the bracelet recipients, the answers are varied depending on the circumstances.

At least four still-serving organisers, including an official earmarked for a key leadership role in the CFMEU, were given the Versace gift from Gatto before July last year.

Some of these middle-ranking union officials faced a dangerous choice, sources said, because refusing the powerful gangland identity would risk blow-back or isolation, such was Gatto’s reputation and pull with some of those union bosses who also received the gift, including John Setka, Christopher and Myles.

“If your boss takes the bracelet, it’s hard to refuse it,” one source said. “You would have ended up pissing off Gatto and the union executive in the same breath.”

Other mid-level union figures, including one who recently left the union to start a business with a former bikie boss, were happy to receive the gold bracelet and wear it. Sources said this was a troubling culture that infected the union’s most senior, albeit since cleansed, ranks.

As lead investigator for the administration, Geoffrey Watson, SC, wrote in an interim report late last year that union officials he interviewed “described Mick Gatto as a friend” or a person who “came with the furniture of the job”.

Watson found this so concerning because Gatto is not only a gangland figure but at times was engaged in inappropriate and murky roles in union disputes.

In his interim report, Watson touched on a case involving the brutal bashing by dodgy developers of two union organisers inspecting an unsafe construction site in Hawthorn. Rather than involve law enforcement to hold the perpetrators to account, Watson found, the union’s now former leadership “referred the issue to Mick Gatto”.

One of the bashed officials is now suing the union.

As Watson wrote: “It was a serious attack: one of the organisers lost the sight in an eye. I was told, by a senior official, that the Victorian branch did not engage with the police but instead “went to Mr Gatto to negotiate”. The senior official told Watson that “this happens every day”.

Watson continues to investigate Gatto, as does the Australian Federal Police, which is probing payments builders allegedly made to the gangland figure and his offsider John Khoury in return for securing union peace.

There is no suggestion Gatto is guilty of any of the offences outlined in the search warrants served by police in March on a gangland accountant.

The list of builders and developers – provided to this masthead by union and construction industry insiders – paying Gatto and Khoury to work as their union fixer, includes companies that the union was targeting because they allegedly ripped off workers and subcontractors or ran unsafe worksites.

Gatto did not respond to questions about his gifts and has previously denied all wrongdoing. Christopher and Myles did not answer questions by deadline.

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.