Disclosures by the Herald last week involving a gangland associate, a Gold Coast developer and the CFMEU are disturbing – not only because they are innately concerning, but also because they show yet again that the cancerous network of thuggery, intimidation and misfeasance that contaminates business, industry and wider society throughout this country continues. It is a stain on the nation.
The Herald reported that gangland associate John Khoury was paid $110,000 by Queensland-Melbourne joint venture Glen Q to help secure industrial peace on the Gold Coast, where the developer was building a 16-level project at Broadbeach.
Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.Credit: Joe Ruckli
A meeting was held between influential CFMEU figures and Khoury. This occurred four months after the federal government forced the union into administration.
There is no suggestion the union attendees have done the wrong thing and the administration has also cleared them.
But the payment to Khoury by the developer was uncovered during federal police raids. A money trail was thus revealed between a front company in the name of Khoury’s accountant to Glen Q’s project.
Also involved was Nick Maric, a Melbourne construction boss now a Queensland government contractor, who has separately retained the services of Khoury and Mick Gatto to deal with the CFMEU.
From left: John Khoury, Nick Maric and Mick Gatto. Maric has for years had Khoury and his business partner Gatto on a retainer to deal with the CFMEU.
Glen Q’s payment to Khoury focuses light on how business and construction is done.
Our reporting also highlights the rivalry between the CFMEU and the Australian Workers’ Union. Representatives of the latter support two firms led by figures with criminal links to foil the CFMEU.
One of the firms, 24-7 Labour, is owned by two men convicted of running a drug-trafficking operation between Queensland and Victoria.
Following the Herald report, the Queensland government announced an expansion of its inquiry into the CFMEU.
The inquiry’s terms of reference will be widened to operate more akin to a royal commission. This is welcome news.
The Queensland move aligns with the urging of the Labor-appointed CFMEU administrator Mark Irving, SC, who has called for more help from federal and state governments to “focus on crime and corruption across the industry”.
The administration believes it is time for a wider frame than just the CFMEU. As do we.
Next month marks a year since the construction and general division of the CFMEU was placed in administration for up to five years.
Optimists might have hoped this was a new dawn in dealing with the union. Pessimists might believe it was another false dawn.
Last month, we reported that the administrator is preparing a national purge of union organisers accused of violence, underworld links or maintaining secret ties to ousted union bosses.
Despite the clear-out, the nexus between the union and underworld elements appears as strong, as venal and violent as ever.
We accept that change will not occur overnight and do not dismiss the hours and labour needed for forensic examination.
But governments, regulators, companies and the union movement must do much better.
We look forward to the day when all the criminality, violence and intimidation are dust in the wind, and those who perpetrated this cancerous malignity have been brought, and held, to account.
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