Premier defends Victoria’s CFMEU inquiry and says investigator will have access to senior MPs

Premier Jacinta Allan has pledged the public servant charged with leading Victoria’s investigation into the CFMEU scandal will have access to top lawmakers, as she defended her government against allegations of a whitewash inquiry into the union.

At a press conference on Sunday, Allan promised she would publicly release government-appointed investigator Greg Wilson’s interim report, due by late August, in the days after it is handed to the government.

A final report, which will offer recommendations on how Victorian institutions can better deal with unlawful conduct in the construction sector, is due by November 28.

Premier Jacinta Allan has come under pressure over her government’s response to the CFMEU scandal. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

“Mr Wilson will no doubt need to talk to a range of government departments and agencies, and sector representatives,” Allan said. “If that involves talking to ministers, then of course, he will be talking to ministers as well. Just to be clear, that includes me.”

The inquiry’s terms of reference were announced late on Saturday afternoon, a week after the first news story from a months-long investigation by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes into CFMEU standover tactics and alleged bikie links was published.

One of the stories in the special investigation revealed that Allan, as deputy premier, was sent detailed evidence in 2022 of construction union officials threatening violence on Big Build sites.

The then infrastructure minister took a year to reply and, even then, she insisted industrial relations was a federal issue and suggested a call to state bureaucrats if there were any other concerns.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said on Sunday that the government’s inquiry was a whitewash that would only cover off having done an investigation.

“Premier Jacinta Allan’s terms of reference won’t even allow for a proper investigation into her failure to address allegations that were brought to her attention, or the attention of the ministers in her government,” Pesutto said.

The opposition leader said only a royal commission would have the powers to uncover what had really occurred at state and federal-funded Big Build sites.

But the premier brushed aside those concerns during an at-times tense press conference in which Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson refused to answer basic questions about whether he was directly made aware of intimidation concerns raised by asphalt contractors at Suburban Rail Loop sites.

Allan eventually jumped in to take over from Pearson and field CFMEU questions herself.

“This is the most appropriate course of action,” Allan said of her inquiry. “We have already seen in this country a royal commission [into unions]. Quite clearly, it didn’t address the root of the problem. That’s what I’m focused on.”

The CFMEU, which put its Victorian branch into administration on Monday, has been temporarily ousted from the Victorian Labor Party. Federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke is also mulling further action.

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