State government knew about Big Build threats years before court action

Senior Victorian government members were privately briefed about violent CFMEU threats made on Labor’s Big Build projects, more than three years before federal authorities launched court action over the alleged conduct.

Leaked emails reveal Victorian government ministers, MPs and a senior staffer in Premier Jacinta Allan’s office were told about the CFMEU threats against an Indigenous firm in the lead-up to the 2022 state election. They also show the government made private commitments to help the firm as it battled an allegedly unlawful union boycott on government sites.

But correspondence from the government stopped abruptly after the November election, and the company eventually collapsed as it tried to resolve the issues first with the Australian Building and Construction Commission and then through the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The claims of the firm, Marda Dandhi, that it was targeted via a series of violent threats issued by CFMEU officials finally reached court this week when the federal ombudsman lodged a suit against the union and organisers Joel Shackleton and Gerry McCrudden for unlawful coercion.

One of the labour hire firm owners, who did not wish to be named out of concerns for his safety, accused the state government of stringing him on with empty promises that it would resolve the matter after the November 2022 election.

“I think we were gaslit,” he told this masthead. “They didn’t want it out before the election because they would have had to answer to it.

“For me and other people, you have to ask yourself, why hasn’t there been a royal commission? What would come out and what would it reveal about what the government knew at the time? There’s no one accountable. I think politicians have got a lot to answer for.”

The labour hire owner joins former Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission commissioner Robert Redlich, KC, who earlier this month said the scale of alleged wrongdoing on the state’s Big Build sites warranted consideration of a royal commission. Queensland is set to start hearings for its inquiry into the CFMEU and misconduct in construction on Wednesday.

The treatment of Marda Dandhi was exposed in July 2024 by the Building Bad investigation by The Age, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes. The investigation uncovered a video of a CFMEU organiser allegedly threatening to bash the two owners of Marda Dandhi, which was aligned with the rival Australian Workers’ Union.

A union official was also recorded boasting the CFMEU controlled who could work on state government sites. Labor’s Big Build in Victoria comprises various massive projects in Melbourne funded by both the state and federal governments, including the Suburban Rail Loop, the West Gate Tunnel, Melbourne Airport Rail, the Metro Tunnel and the Level Crossing Removal Project, and other regional works.

The leaked emails show the government was discussing the coercion case over a six-month period from April 2022 to up to four weeks before the November election. After the election, the communications ceased.

Labor MP Vicki Ward, who was parliamentary secretary of transport infrastructure at the time and is now minister for equality, held a one-hour meeting with a Marda Dandhi owner – who was a constituent in her seat of Eltham in Melbourne’s northern suburbs – about the allegations early in 2022.

She advised him to go to police after he told her that “unsavoury characters” were surveilling his family home at a time when he was threatening to speak up on CFMEU coercion.

She also said she had briefed Allan’s deputy chief of staff in April and advised that then-small business minister Jaala Pulford was handling the “serious” allegations, according to the emails. Allan was Victoria’s infrastructure minister at the time and responsible for the Big Build. She became premier in September 2023 after Daniel Andrews retired following Labor’s election win.

The emails contrast with Allan’s repeated insistence that claims of CFMEU coercion and the kicking off of subcontractors from state government sites were the responsibility of the state’s principal contractors or the Commonwealth.

This masthead has previously reported that Marda Dandhi wrote to Allan in April 2022 detailing violence and abuse the owners had been subjected to. But the emails are the first insight into what was going on behind the scenes. When Allan finally responded to Marda Dandhi in April 2023, she referred the firm to the federal government or state infrastructure authorities. The firm collapsed a few months later.

An Allan government spokesman said on Thursday: “As this matter is before the courts it is not appropriate to comment on specific cases.

“We are making sure that people coming forward with information about conduct on worksites have the complaints processes and protections they deserve – while also ensuring any complaint made is assessed and referred to the appropriate regulator.”

Pulford, who did not contest the 2022 election and has retired from politics, could not be reached for comment.

In an email sent to Marda Dandhi on April 19, 2022, Ward said she had met with Allan’s deputy chief of staff that morning “as we work through this situation and see what can be done to help”.

Ward was responding to the owner’s emails detailing CFMEU intimidation and that his neighbour had informed him that “two unsavoury characters had been parked on the corner of his property and had been watching my property”.

“When he made himself aware to them the cars have driven off,” the owner wrote to Ward. “For him to think that sighting warrants informing me is a little unsettling.”

When the owner emailed again in October suggesting he had lost patience and mentioning the coming election, Ward sought to assure him the government was still on the case.

In her last communication to the owner, on October 31, 2022, Ward said she had been having “many conversations in the background”.

“I met with Minister Pulford a few months ago (and have been in communication with her since), and she has let me know she’s taking the matters seriously and steps are being taken to work through the challenges you’re facing,” she said.

“I know it isn’t the full resolution you are expecting and I hear how stressful and challenging this is for your business. However, we are trying to find a resolution.”

The Indigenous firm owner told this masthead that when he went to the Australian Building and Construction Commission in 2022, the building watchdog told him it could not help him as the Albanese government had cut its funding.

He later went to the Fair Work Ombudsman in May 2023. Two and half years later, the Ombudsman launched its legal action against the CFMEU, alleging organisers Joel Shackleton and Gerry McCrudden threatened and abused the Marda Dandhi owners. The state government and the builders are not respondents to the action.

An Allan government spokesman said on Thursday: “As this matter is before the courts it is not appropriate to comment on specific cases.

“We are making sure that people coming forward with information about conduct on worksites have the complaints processes and protections they deserve – while also ensuring any complaint made is assessed and referred to the appropriate regulator.”

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