‘Keep CFMEU emails secret’: Allan government

CFMEU emails sent to Jacinta Allan potentially blowing the whistle on misconduct are being kept from the public.

Former Victorian CFMEU boss John Setka. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt/NewsWire

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The Victorian Labor government is fighting to keep two emails sent to Jacinta Allan that are believed to highlight complaints about CFMEU misconduct on Big Build construction sites

secret.

The two emails — the first eight-pages long and the second running to 17 pages — have emerged as part of a Freedom of Information request by the upper house Liberal leader David Davis.

The two emails were identified in an FOI request by Mr Davis requesting “briefs created since 1 December 2022 to Minister Allan concerning corruption in construction or the CFMEU”.

The emails were sent to the Premier in June 2023 when she was the minister for transport, infrastructure and the Suburban Rail Loop. This was more than a year before allegations of CFMEU misconduct and bikie links on government tunnel and bridge sites emerged in the media.

In refusing to hand them over, the government has claimed they are, among other things, exempt from FOI because they contain private information. Victoria’s information commissioner did support the government’s decision to withhold the emails, documents show.

Mr Davis has lodged an appeal with VCAT to obtain the two emails and slammed the failure to make them public.

“The FOI was simple; briefs created for Minister Allan concerning corruption in construction or the CFMEU,” he said.

“The release of two key documents on corruption, the CFMEU and/or construction was blocked by Labor in an outrageous misuse of power designed to protect Allan.

“This smells of a coverup pure and simple. The excuse given for blocking the release is that ‘personal information’ would be revealed is extraordinary.”

The move to block the release of the two emails follows a decision by the government to contest the release of a further 29 documents detailing complaints about CFMEU misconduct on Victorian Big Build road and rail projects.

The bid to block releasing the 29 letters, emails and briefs came after their existence emerged in an FOI request from The Australian.

The Victorian Infrastructure Development Authority – the public service unit running projects such as the Metro Tunnel, West Gate Tunnel and North East Link – has refused to release the 29 documents, claiming they are internal working documents, contain material covered by legal professional privilege and relate to confidential trade and commercial details.

John Setka resigned as CFMEU state secretary in July 2024 amid media reports that the union had been infiltrated by organised crime and outlaw bikies. The Albanese government put the union’s construction division into administration.