CFMEU boss David Hanna got $150k worth of work free, Heydon told

Former union heavyweight David Hanna allegedly had free work carried out on his home by Mirvac and its contactors.

Former union official Dave Hanna at the trade union royal commission hearing in Brisbane.

Former Labor powerbroker and construction union heavyweight David Hanna has quit the party after revelations in the trade union commission this week that construction giant Mirvac helped pay for $150,000 of free work on his luxury home.

Queensland ALP state secret­ary Evan Moorhead confirmed to The Australian last night that Mr Hanna had resigned from the party after he was asked to show cause why he should not be stripped of his membership.

Premier Annastacia Palasz­czuk told the state parliament yesterday that Labor had begun disciplinary action against the one-time boss of the small but powerful Old Guard faction, whose members have included Peter Beattie and Kevin Rudd. State Treasurer Curtis Pitt is another­ member.

It is understood Mr Hanna, who is expected to give evidence before the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption today, said he was making the decision in the best interests of the labour movement.

His wife, Jenny, has also been called to give evidence today.

In the commission yesterday, former Mirvac project manager Mathew McAllum­ estimated the company and its contractors had paid for about $150,000 worth of work — including wiring, tiling and air-conditioning — on Mr Hanna’s house in Cornubia, in Brisbane’s south, in 2013.

Mirvac footed the bill for about $70,000 worth of the work, while contractors — mostly involved in Mirvac’s Orion shopping centre project in Brisbane’s south — absorbed­ the rest. It was “general practice” for Mirvac to disguise the costs of everything from union donations to “favours” through invoices­, Mr McCallum said.

At least one 2013 invoice for “rock excavation” could be described­ as “fraudulent” as it was actually to cover the cost of tickets to a union boxing event, Mr Mc­Allum said, adding that he asked contractors to “conceal” the fact that they were billing Mirvac for work done on the house and for tickets to union events multiple times.

He said that Mr Hanna would “sometimes, but not always” pay for the cheaper items and work, leaving much of the expensive jobs to be paid by others. Mr Hanna was then the leader of the Builders Labourers Federation and became president of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union when the unions merged in 2013.

Ms Palaszczuk said that the revel­ations emerging from the royal commission were “indeed concerning” and “indeed disgracef­ul behaviour” and described­ Labor’s action against Mr Hanna as the “right and correc­t thing to do”.

Labor state secretary Evan Moorhead told The Australian that Mr Hanna, a former Labor faction and union boss, had until noon on Monday to respond to the demand from Labor’s solicitors to show cause why he should not be ejected from the party.

In separate developments, the CFMEU won a victory against the royal commission yesterday, winning an injunction on the use of inform­ation that was seized by police attached to the inquiry in Canberra last month.

Police are temporarily restrained­ from “handling, viewing or copying” any of the material or data seized during a raid on the Canberra office of the CFMEU on August 25, the union said.

The CFMEU claimed that the search warrants executed by the taskforce attached to the royal commission were unlawful.

Acting justice David Robinson of the ACT Supreme Court said that the construction union had an “arguable case’’. It is listed for hearing on October 12 and 13.

The CFMEU said that it would be seeking “declarations that the police acted unlawfully and that all materials should be returned”.

Additional reporting: Sarah Elks, Elizabeth Colman