CFMEU faces new investigations into alleged corruption at Queensland, NSW and SA facilities | Australian Unions

The CFMEU’s construction arm is facing investigations into alleged corruption and criminal links at its Queensland, New South Wales and South Australian sites. A new investigation, backed by new enforcement powers, is also being launched in Victoria after the interim administrator fully accepted the findings of an initial investigation.

In response to an interim investigation conducted by barrister Geoffrey Watson SC into the CFMEU’s combined Victoria and Tasmania office, administrator Mark Irving KC accepted all seven of Watson’s recommendations, including that alleged links to outlaw motorcycle gangs and other organised crime should be further investigated.

Irving said he considered the issues “as extremely serious and concerning” and had given Watson coercive powers to continue his investigation into the combined south-eastern branch of the union. He said Watson’s report highlighted “a cycle of lawlessness where violence was an acceptable part of the culture and that “the CFMEU has lost control”.

Irving noted that Watson was constrained by limited powers, as he confined himself to events in Victoria and had no power to compel evidence or promise confidentiality.

“I am not limited by any of these restrictions,” Irving said in his response.

He has asked Watson to press ahead, backed by Irving’s own coercive powers, and to produce a “comprehensive” report by December 1.

“I have decided to establish an Integrity Unit within my government to conduct systematic investigations into the increasing number of allegations that have been and continue to be made to me,” Irving said in his response.

He launched detailed investigations into CFMEU offices in Queensland, NSW and South Australia and said he had also established an anonymous whistleblowing service to enable CFMEU members, delegates and employees – and others in the construction industry – to report misconduct.

“I believe that members of criminal motorcycle gangs and those associated with organised crime should have no role whatsoever in industrial relations in the construction industry, either on the employee or employer side,” said Irving, who pledged to “do just that”.

In his report, made public on Monday, Watson said he had uncovered information that supported “the veracity of allegations of criminal and corrupt conduct” made in a series of reports in Nine newspapers and on the 60 Minutes program. CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith commissioned Watson’s investigation before the union went into administration.

“Based on the information I uncovered during my investigation, the Victoria Department was caught in a cycle of lawlessness, where violence was an accepted part of the culture and the threat of violence was a substitute for reasonable negotiation,” Watson’s report said.

Mark Irving said that, following Watson’s preliminary work, he planned to launch a wider investigation into the operation of the labour brokerage, starting in Victoria, including the circumstances under which the agreements were reached, any illegal payments and the influence of motorcycle gangs.

It would also be investigated whether it is appropriate to hire workers to deploy ‘a large proportion of the construction workers’.

The new investigations in the other states will also examine alleged corruption and ties to motorcycle gangs, along with the alleged payment of “bribes,” the use of charitable funds and multiple accounts, threatening, menacing and violent behavior, and sexual harassment of female deputies.

“The initiation of these investigations does not imply that those whose conduct will be investigated have committed a civil or criminal wrong,” Irving’s response said. “They are fact-finding investigations.”