On police radar and still on an inside track to major projects thanks to CFMEU

A company run by brothers known to police and championed by the CFMEU has ballooned into one of NSW’s biggest construction labour-hire operations, with the union’s backing enabling it to secure lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts.

The revelations will place immense pressure on the Minns government, which has been effectively supporting “persons of interest” whose firms are – with special union support – winning subcontracts on Labor government projects.

Nedzad Kocic (left) and Darren Greenfield.Credit: Nine

One of Australia’s biggest builders, John Holland Group, is also involved, with a leaked internal document suggesting the company planned to strike a secret memorandum of understanding (MOU) last October with the union to only source labour hire from three CFMEU-preferred companies, including Zenith, on the NSW taxpayer-funded M7-M12 project.

The dynamic is also seen in Victoria, where CFMEU officials have pushed a small number of union-affiliated companies, led by a firm called Top Up Labour, onto major Victorian government projects.

A review by this masthead of industrial deals in NSW also shows embattled construction union boss Darren Greenfield signed off on multiple enterprise agreements with companies run by figures known to police, giving them preferential treatment on major construction projects throughout the state.

Zenith, run by brothers Nedzad and Senad Kocic, is one of only a few labour-hire firms in NSW with which the construction union has agreed enterprise agreements, a key requirement for companies to win work on large commercial and civil projects.

Nedzad Kocic, 52, founded the company in 2003, just two years after he was convicted on a dozen firearms charges. His brother Senad, 46, now owns and largely runs the business.

The brothers Kocic, both previous bankrupts, have amassed an extensive property empire ranging from a rural spread near Nyngan, in the state’s west, to a holiday home on the Central Coast.

Property records show that the two men and their wives have bought almost $30 million worth of real estate.

In 2016, Senad Kocic snapped up tennis star Lleyton Hewitt’s seven-bedroom house in Kenthurst for $5 million. He then proceeded to buy the adjoining property for another $5 million.

While he was doing this, a company controlled by his wife, Elvira, outlaid more than $7 million on another two properties.

Older brother Ned Kocic, who still lists his address as his parents’ Hunters Hill home, paid $5.35 million for a Huntleys Point home in 2016. The following year, he paid $4.55 million for another waterfront property in Henley. Months later, Ned’s wife, Almira, bought a $2 million property in Kenthurst.

The Kocic’s property empire was hit with freezing orders when the ATO began proceedings against the families.

In November last year, the Federal Court issued Ned Kocic with an $18 million income tax bill. Court documents indicated that his brother Senad has struck an undisclosed deal with the Tax Office.

A few days after receiving that tax bill, on November 8, the Fair Work Commission approved a new CFMEU EBA signed off by Greenfield for Zenith’s latest entity – Zenith Workforce Aust – with Senad installed as director.

NSW Police are so concerned about the brothers that the police commissioner has repeatedly intervened to stop them from accessing a firearms licence, including as recently as last year.

During an appeal of a commissioner’s decision in 2022 – which refused Senad a licence due to his brother’s criminal history – Senad denied police claims that he had been “involved with criminal elements” and claimed he’d had a falling out with his brother.

However, the commissioner argued his evidence was “false, unreliable, implausible and deliberately evasive”.

Confidential evidence proffered to the NSW Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal convinced senior member Larissa Andelman that Senad was not a “fit and proper person” to have a gun.

“To do so may represent a risk to public safety,” she said in a ruling last year.

Over the past decade, companies linked to Zenith, including those supplying it with workers, have collapsed owing tens of millions of dollars in Pay As You Go tax and GST.

Corporate records show that from 2022 to 2024, Zenith-related entities have collapsed owing more than $28 million in unpaid PAYG tax and GST.

The company had been the registered owner of 11 flashy cars (sold off before liquidation) including a 2019 Lamborghini Huracan and a 2016 Ford Mustang

A spokesman for Zenith denied the company had criminal links.

“We are a family-run business,” he said. “We’re not anything of what you’re describing at all.”

The Kocic brothers did not answer questions sent through their lawyers. They said this should not be misconstrued as an admission of the allegations.

The company has become one of the biggest labour-hire firms in the state and continues to win work on some of the state’s biggest projects, including the Western Sydney Airport redevelopment, led by Multiplex.

Zenith is in charge of traffic control for Atlassian’s $1.4 billion headquarters in the Sydney CBD, labour hire for highly secure data centres in Hindmarsh and Macquarie Park, as well as a series of Meriton redevelopments from Mona Vale to Zetland.

An insider who provided this masthead with the CFMEU agreement with John Holland, and who cannot be identified for fear of repercussions, said it showed one of Australia’s biggest builders had effectively agreed to a cartel-like arrangement to ensure only union-favoured companies got work on a state-government-funded project.

Credit: Matt Golding

In a statement, John Holland said Zenith did not get a subcontract on the M7-M12, but did not explain why it had negotiated an MOU with the union that appeared to favour Zenith and two other CFMEU-aligned firms.

A fourth Australian Workers Union-aligned company is also mentioned in the agreement, but the AWU backed away from the deal due to concerns about its appropriateness, according to an industry insider speaking anonymously to detail confidential discussions.

Most recently, Zenith Workforce Pty Ltd – whose former directors and shareholders were Ned and Senad Kocic – went into voluntary liquidation in January owing $15.4 million in PAYG and payroll tax.

The Kocic brothers also have a long and close association with a former leader of the CFMEU NSW branch.

Ex-CFMEU NSW secretary Brian Parker told the trade union royal commission in 2015 that he had known Ned and Senad Kocic since the 1990s.

Police phone taps secretly recorded Parker in 2014 talking to Senad – the two referring to each other as “buddy” – about getting him to pay a bill on a racing horse that Senad co-owned with former construction identity Dennis Delic.

Former CFMEU NSW senior official Brian Parker.Credit: Michele Mossop

Greenfield is facing growing pressure to stand down from his role as one of the state’s most powerful union figures. The CFMEU state secretary was charged with corruption in 2021 over allegations that a Sydney company bribed him in exchange for union support.

Greenfield has denied the allegations and rejected calls from NSW Premier Chris Minns to resign following days of revelations about union misconduct in this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes.

The NSW CFMEU did not respond to requests for comment.

Zenith and its related entities paid $55,000 to the CFMEU last financial year, political disclosure records show. Since 2016, it has paid $426,000 to the CFMEU. The CFMEU has given more than $400,000 to NSW Labor since 2021 through membership fees.

At the same time, the CFMEU has been increasing pressure on the NSW government to ensure all major taxpayer-funded projects are staffed by employees on enterprise agreements.

NSW shadow treasurer Damien Tudehope said Labor should return all donations made by the CFMEU since Greenfield was charged.

“The premier should say we don’t want anything to do with this body until we can be sure that their union membership is not corrupt, and is not engaged in corrupt behaviour,” he said.

A spokesperson for the NSW government said it had taken immediate steps towards putting the CFMEU Construction and General Division into administration and having EBAs reviewed by the federal government.

“The allegations related to Zenith have been referred to the NSW Construction Compliance Unit for investigation,” they said.

In Victoria, multiple construction supervisors and union insiders, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, said tier-one contractors in the state had been directed to use Top Up Labour instead of other providers.

The company is infamous in the industry for its employment of workers with criminal convictions. Top Up Labour was the employer of bikie and convicted criminal Joel Leavitt, a CFMEU health and safety representative on the Labor government upgrade of the Hurstbridge rail line.

Leavitt was found to have been driven to hospital in his work car after being shot during an incident at a bikie clubhouse.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said on Tuesday she had “zero tolerance for any sort of illegal behaviour”.

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