Manager caught in threats to business over level crossings

A senior Victorian Level Crossing Removal Project executive and former Labor staffer has been caught on camera threatening the livelihood of small business owners.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, left, and son Joseph visit the Glen Huntly level crossing removal site in November 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ James Ross

A senior Victorian Level Crossing Removal Project executive and former Labor staffer has been caught on camera threatening the livelihood of small-business owners after they displayed a poster opposing a local project.

In an exchange traders in the Mont Albert and Surrey Hills shopping strips in Melbourne’s east described as “disgusting”, LXRA stakeholder relations and communications manager Lance Wilson tells the owners of a local hospitality business they should take the poster down unless they want to lose customers.

The Andrews government promised ahead of the 2018 election to remove two dangerous level crossings at Mont Albert and Surrey Hills and upgrade both train stations, but has since angered local residents and traders by beginning works to replace them with a single “superstation”.

The local community argues the project will result in lost parking and foot traffic around the existing shopping strips, the loss of a local park and more than 600 mature trees, and the reduction of a local street from two lanes to one.

Revelations of Mr Wilson’s exchange, which the state opposition says should cost him his job, come after The Australian this week revealed the government is spending taxpayers’ money trying to overturn the Information Commissioner’s orders to release documents relating to several different level-crossing removal projects, including the government’s basis for determining which removals to prioritise.

In footage provided to The Australian, Mr Wilson can be seen in an LXRA pullover, walking into a Mont Albert business and gesturing at the poster in the front window, telling the owners they will lose the custom of 200 level-crossing removal workers who “don’t feel welcome”, unless they remove the sign.

“This doesn’t earn you any money. This earns you nothing. It costs you money … I’m just saying, by putting that sign up here in your shop, you’ve got about 200 people working up here who now feel like they can’t buy (food) here,” Mr Wilson says.

“The state government never pays compensation … Putting the sign up won’t get you compensation. It won’t get you anything. The only think it will get you is workers won’t be coming into the shop ... We want to work with you to make you more money, and that sign, that doesn’t help you.”

The August 2022 CCTV footage was provided to The Australian by another local trader, on the understanding the business owners, who fear retribution from the LXRA, are not identified.

The Mont Albert and Surrey Hills Traders Association wrote to LXRA CEO Kevin Devlin last year to complain about the incident.

Association spokesman Tony Chiodo said he had seen the footage, and described Mr Wilson’s treatment of the business owners as “disgusting”.

“You can’t bully people like that. He’s been like that with all of us. He’s not a nice man,” Mr Chiodo said.

Mr Chiodo, who has run Saville Row Prestige Dry Cleaning in Union Rd, Surrey Hills for 43 years, said the project had dramatically reduced business in the Hamilton St, Mont Albert and Union Rd shopping villages.

“It’s just sad. We struggled through Covid, and now we’re being smashed again, with permanent consequences and no compensation,” he said.

Mr Wilson is also accused of telling Surrey Hills and Mont Albert Progress Association president Greg Buchanan that if he wrote to Mr Devlin regarding concerns about the project: “I’m the one writing back to you. Don’t kid yourself that you’re getting a response from Kevin.”

A former election campaign manager for federal Labor minister and former opposition leader Bill Shorten, Mr Wilson made national headlines in 2015 when it was revealed in evidence to the trade union royal commission that Mr Shorten had failed to declare a $40,000 donation from labour hire company Unibuilt, which was used to pay Mr Wilson’s salary.

An Andrews government spokeswoman said: “In 2016 two people were killed at the dangerous Union Road level crossing, which is why the project has been fast-tracked for removal and will be completed two years earlier than originally planned. The project has the overwhelming support of the community who want this dangerous death trap removed as soon as possible.”

Deputy opposition leader David Southwick said Mr Wilson’s conduct was “the type of thuggish behaviour you’d expect to see on the worst union construction site, not a local small business simply just trying to get by.”

“It’s clear that Mont Albert and Surrey Hills traders and residents have been treated abysmally during this process. They deserve to have their voices heard, not muzzled,” Mr Southwick said.

“The Andrews Labor government must act now to stand down Mr Wilson and launch a full independent investigation into these matters today.”