Witness Halafihi Kivalu arrested after phone-tap evidence

A former union organiser is the first witness to be arrested after giving evidence to the trade union royal commission.

Job ID PD496355. Halafihi "Fihi" Kivalu appeared again before the Royal Commission into trade unions in Canberra and was later escorted form a building by several Police officers and placed into a police vehicle. Pic by Gary Ramage

A former construction union organiser and Labor sub-branch president is the first witness to be arrested after giving evidence to the trade union royal commission, following claims he extorted more than $150,000.

Halafihi Kivalu was arrested yesterday by the ACT-based Australian Federal Police taskforce attached to the royal commission after tapped phone conversations played in the commission appeared to contradict his evidence.

In one phone call he says he “organised a crime” and expresses concern about being “behind bars”.

Mr Kivalu was, until recently, the president of an ALP Labor sub-branch in Canberra in the seat of Fraser, held by assistant Treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh.

Mr Kivalu retained this position when the alleged corruption was said to have occurred.

Dr Leigh’s office declined to comment yesterday, while a spokesman for Bill Shorten said it was a “matter for the police”.

Mr Kivalu was a lead organiser for the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union but resigned on November 10 because of “personal issues” and received a $60,467 payment on his departure.

Before being arrested, he told the commission he took payments of $100,000 from ACT construction firms.

“I played pokies with it, gambled ... I did not pass any payment to anyone in the CFMEU,” he said.

National secretary of the CFMEU’s construction division Dave Noonan said: “Any employer that’s approached by a union official about a bribe ought to take the matter to the police straight away, and not wait for the royal commission.”

ACT Policing yesterday issued a statement confirming a 39-year-old Queanbeyan man had been arrested following the Canberra hearings and inquiries were continuing.

The arrest is the second directly linked to the commission, but the first time a witness has been taken in after giving evidence. In May, a 42-year-old man was arrested by the Queensland police taskforce attached to the commission.

Mr Kivalu told the hearing he had received $60,000 in payments from formwork company owner Elias Taleb and $40,000 from another firm, MDS Tiling, of which $20,000 was paid by a man called “Mick”.

“Mick gave me this money in the same context ... in the hope that I would help him with work here in Canberra. He voluntarily offered me these donations as a gift,” he said.

Mr Kivalu denied suggestions he demanded payments, but recorded phone calls played to the commission appeared to contradict his evidence.

In a call with Mr Taleb on April 10, Mr Kivalu said: “You’ve paid me some money and this is — this is — this is the balance of it that you ­f. king owe me ... Elias, Elias, you haven’t f. king given me a lot of money. If you’d given me a lot of money, the 85 would have been paid off.”

Mr Kivalu explained the conversation by saying he was trying to “get back” at Mr Taleb because he was being blackmailed.

“He (Mr Taleb) tried to blackmail me to my boss, (then CFMEU branch secretary) Dean Hall. So I decided to give back to Elias his own medicine,” he said.

In a phone call with his wife on June 12, Mr Kivalu said: “He (Mr Taleb) can — in court or in front of the union — he can say he doesn’t owe me nothing ... What else do I do, because I organised a crime and it comes back to bite us up in the arse?”

Mr Kivalu explained this conversation by saying it was also part of his scheme to “get back” at Mr Taleb.

“It was just me lying to my wife, it’s me lying to Elias, so, look, it was just a big scheme of me getting back at Elias,” he said.