Victoria’s Big Build cash used for bikie boxing and barbecues

Companies working on Labor’s Big Build projects have been pressured to fund an outlaw motorcycle gang-linked boxing promotion company as well as a bikie-backed souvlaki day as part of rackets run on state government sites.

The revelations come as a veteran CFMEU insider who has previously faced threats of violence broke his silence to warn that corruption in the NSW construction industry was “more aggressive than ever before”, and that the Labor-backed administration was failing to stop it.

Johnny Walker fighting in a recent bout with the corner posts showing MC Labour’s logo.Credit: Instagram

On Monday, the Albanese and Allan governments and the federal and Victorian oppositions scrambled to respond to the latest allegations raised in this masthead and on 60 Minutes of union and gangland wrongdoing on government sites.

Premier Jacinta Allan said a new police investigation codenamed Operation Hawk would be established immediately to probe the “shocking and unacceptable” revelations, only for Victoria Police sources to confirm hours later that Operation Hawk was not new and had been running since this masthead last year exposed the infiltration of the CFMEU construction union by organised crime figures.

On Monday night, Victoria Police issued a statement saying the operation would be “newly expanded” with detectives having a “clear focus on serious and violent offending including blackmail, extortion, assaults and threats to life and property”.

The sponsorship of the Hardcore Promotions boxing and kickboxing company involves most of the labour hire firms that have supplied thousands of workers over several years across a number of Big Build projects, earning tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Joel Leavitt (left), Johnny Walker and Marc Gelsi.

Two companies that paid “sponsorship” money to Hardcore Promotions said they did so begrudgingly and to secure industrial peace and CFMEU support on the Big Build. The companies spoke anonymously due to concerns about repercussions.

In the first half of 2023, Big Build subcontractors were separately pressured to fund a catering day by the same gangland figure behind the Hardcore Promotions sponsorship demands, Joel Leavitt.

Leavitt is a bikie standover man and a former union health and safety representative on the Hurstbridge rail upgrade and the Melbourne Metro Tunnel project.

On Sunday, the chief investigator for the CFMEU administration, Geoffrey Watson, SC, described Leavitt’s placement on the Big Build as “the single worst instance” of gangland infiltration he had so far uncovered and a “very black moment in the history of the CFMEU”.

“He’s an extremely violent criminal with a bad record,” said Watson, describing how Big Build workers and subcontractors knew that Leavitt and his associates were not mere bikies but “baseball bat-wielding violent people”.

Watson also attacked the Allan government for covering up the extent of Big Build wrongdoing and failing to properly examine how much the state government knew of the problems across the mega-infrastructure scheme in the Wilson review of the construction sector.

A paper trail seen by this masthead reveals that in March 2023, Leavitt used his status as union delegate to request that the Southern Program Alliance (SPA) – the conglomerate of private and public entities building rail projects – support his request for a union-backed catering day.

SPA asked Leavitt to provide three invoices, but it was Big Build subcontractors that ultimately paid Leavitt for the food he supplied as part of a racket from which police suspect Leavitt pocketed thousands of dollars.

In November, detectives secretly requested that SPA and the CFMEU hand over any records about the catering event.

But in a development that reveals the limits of police action, detectives recently told witnesses they would abandon their investigation, having concluded it would be too difficult to obtain evidence from subcontractors to sustain a prosecution.

“We don’t have the resources or ability to run it through court,” said a law enforcement source, granted anonymity to discuss confidential information.

Evidence uncovered by this masthead also suggests Leavitt is involved in Hardcore Promotions, taking a key role in running the firm and organising its fights, including a recent event won by ex-bikie and former Big Build health and safety representative Johnny “Two Guns” Walker.

Johnny “Two Guns” Walker fighting at a bout in February sponsored by construction companies.

Walker, like Leavitt, was forced off the Big Build following the Building Bad revelations. In two videos posted in February he appeared to acknowledge Leavitt’s involvement in the company.

“Hardcore Promotions, [Marc] Gelsi, Joel Leavitt, I love youse and thanks for giving me this opportunity to get back in the ring again,” he said.

Corporate records show Marc Gelsi is the sole director and shareholder of Hardcore Promotions.

According to Big Build subcontractors, Leavitt made repeated approaches to pressure them to sponsor Hardcore Promotions fight nights and spend thousands of dollars buying tickets or obtaining sponsorship rights.

The names of major Big Build subcontractors adorn the ring at Hardcore events.

Among Hardcore’s sponsors is MC Labour, which has ties to infamous gangland figures such as ex-bikie boss Toby Mitchell and is separately embroiled in the ghost shift scandal on the Metro Tunnel.

Asked why MC Labour sponsored a number of Hardcore Promotions events, a company spokesperson said: “We routinely purchase tickets to sporting and entertainment events, such as the Australian Open and the Luke Combs concert, for our clients and employees.”

The company said it did not believe buying tickets to the events was an endorsement of the owners’ “activities or beliefs”.

“In purchasing tickets to this event, we were not aware of any affiliations that this promotions company may have,” the statement said.

The spokesperson made no comments in response to questions about sponsorship.

Leavitt continues to leverage his connections in the building sector and in the CFMEU to standover players in the construction industry. Evidence suggests Leavitt attended a meeting with Walker and Mick Gatto late last year to mediate a dispute involving Big Build-linked identities.

Leavitt is also suspected to be making money from boxing promotion, and is negotiating a fight between Walker and former Hells Angels strongman Daniel “Porky” Lovett. The fight is set to be held at the state government-owned Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

NSW building corruption ‘worse than ever’

While the latest Building Bad revelations have focused on Victoria, veteran construction industry and CFMEU figure Mario Barrios has broken his silence to warn that the building sector in NSW remains exposed to similar issues.

Mario Barrios was a former long-serving top unionist at the CFMEU.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Barrios served as CFMEU delegate for 38 years and on the NSW branch committee of management for 28 years.

He remains a union activist aligned with a faction strongly opposed to former secretary Darren Greenfield, who is facing criminal charges of taking bribes.

Barrios declined to talk about Greenfield’s legal case, other than attacking the previous union executive’s decision to use members’ money to fund Greenfield’s defence.

But he was adamant that corruption was “definitely” spread through the construction industry in Sydney and was “more aggressive than ever before”.

Barrios, who a decade ago was threatened with violence after confronting infamous and now jailed building company boss George Alex, said both the police and the administrator appeared incapable of tackling the industry’s problems.

“Certainly, the administrator [in NSW] is not making companies or individuals feel confident that anything will change,” he said. “The administrator has cut the head of the octopus but the tentacles are still in place.

“There are a number of credible allegations made by some subcontractors or union members to the NSW administrators, and no response or investigation has taken place.”

Asked if fear still ruled the industry, Barrios said: “The simple answer is yes. Ask that poor organiser whose ute was firebombed [earlier this year] with his wife and children inside the house metres away.”

Barrios said he had met an AFP taskforce a decade ago and briefed it on the problems that existed today, but he said the agency’s promise to introduce him to the Tax Office never occurred.

He called for significant legislative reform and heavy penalties for those that encouraged corruption or pushed for organised crime on building sites.

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