Victorian Labor Government: Two-Word Answer Blows Open CFMEU Claims
A construction manager told Victoria’s Big Build royal commission that a senior official linked pressure to resolve union disputes with the prospect of winning future work. Asked where the view came from, he answered: “Minister’s office.” The evidence concerns a 2022 project and allegations involving the CFMEU.
A construction manager told Victoria’s Big Build royal commission that pressure to resolve a union dispute was tied to the prospect of future government work, answering “Minister’s office” when asked where the view came from.
The testimony raises questions about whether the Victorian Labor government backed demands by the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) at a state construction site. The minister involved has not been identified in the evidence described at the hearing.
Joe Aygur, a manager at the Rail Network Alliance, testified under compulsion that a senior Rail Projects Victoria official, Peter Wilkinson, indicated builders had to attend a CFMEU meeting in Melbourne.
Aygur said Wilkinson told him “there was a view in government that if we could not work through our industrial relations matters, that we would not win further work in Victoria”. Asked by royal commission counsel assisting Chris Young where that view originated, Aygur replied: “Minister’s office.”
The joint venture was pricing the Melbourne Airport railway at the time, Aygur told the commission. The hearing evidence has not established which minister’s office was involved.
Jacinta Allan, then transport minister and later premier, denied a similar allegation in the past. In a statement on Tuesday night, she said she would answer “whatever questions the royal commission has for her about these allegations”.
The dispute concerned the Gap Road level crossing removal project in Sunbury. Aygur said the CFMEU had raised industrial relations issues at the site and that the government wanted them resolved.
When Young asked whether the issues could have been addressed without granting the union’s demands, Aygur said: “That was the only approach.”
At a meeting at the union’s Elizabeth Street office, the builders agreed to pay for two full-time health and safety representatives selected by the union and to change labor-hire and traffic-management contractors.
Aygur said changing contractors during a high-pressure period of work risked workers’ safety. CFMEU organizer Paul Tzimas had complained that work over long weekends kept him and other organizers from family gatherings and birthdays, Aygur recounted.
Another witness, Steve Testolin, described senior union official Joe Myles raising future projects during the meeting. Testolin said aligning with the union could mean “there’d be a positive outcome and that we’d be looked after”.
Asked which projects came up, Testolin replied: “Airport rail … we’d be the preferred contractors.”
The testimony came during a hearing featuring live witnesses on Tuesday. Allan said she would answer the royal commission’s questions about the allegations.
