‘We keep punching’: Gatto breaks silence amid AFP probe, CFMEU allegations

Underworld figure Mick Gatto has broken his silence amid an Australian Federal Police probe into suspect payments he may have received as part of the crisis engulfing the CFMEU.

Gatto has featured repeatedly in issues surrounding the embattled union with the CFMEU’s administrator Mark Irving writing to Gatto earlier this month to warn that Gatto should not “call, meet with, email or text any CFMEU employee or ask to be permitted onto CFMEU premises”.

Gatto’s accountant, Charles Pellegrino, was also raided in March as part of a probe into a suspected criminal conspiracy to give or receive “corrupting benefits” to influence union officials, which is outlawed under the Fair Work Act.

On Wednesday, this masthead revealed that the federal police had written to construction companies seeking information on payments to underworld figures. Although the police did not publicly identify any businesses or individuals the letter was sent to businesses that have put Gatto on the payroll.

Gatto has previously denied wrongdoing but largely refrained from publicly answering questions put to him about these allegations.

On Wednesday morning, Gatto posted to a social media group that he was “copping it again in The Age today”.

“They just won’t leave me alone,” he said on the video which appeared to show him walking his dog along Port Phillip Bay.

“What I do is all above board and completely legal.”

After describing the day as “beautiful”, Gatto complains about this masthead’s ongoing coverage of issues in the construction industry and his involvement in them.

“I wish they’d practice on someone else, try and clean up the city of all these muggings and home invasions and concentrate on different areas. Anyway, it’s water off a duck’s back, we keep punching,” he said, before ending with this statement: “What a beautiful world we live in. Shame about the people.”

The video is filmed on the Mornington Peninsula, which is home to some of Victoria’s wealthiest people and where Gatto also has a property.

Gatto has made millions of dollars working as a union fixer, although his operation is under fire from Irving and the federal police, who are working to drive the gangland figure from the industry.

The Building Bad series from this masthead has revealed significant details about Gatto’s involvement in the construction industry including recordings of his dealings with a Melbourne developer where he boasted he could shut down any site.

“We can cause you grief,” Gatto says on the recording.

In reports for the CFMEU administration, corruption-busting barrister Geoffrey Watson raised significant concerns about Gatto’s sway within the building sector and the union itself.

In a letter to Gatto this month, Irving said: “Your business model which relied on developing close personal relationships with CFMEU organisers is now at an end.”

Premier Jacinta Allan said she had confidence in the administrator of the CFMEU to clean up the construction union, which she said was a sizeable task.

“They have before them the national picture of the work that needs to be done, because obviously the work spans multiple jurisdictions,” Allan said on Wednesday.

“And there is a lot to do here, and the CFMEU administrator is working incredibly hard to address this rotten culture that has been identified.

“In terms of the question there … about the size of the task, I acknowledge it is a significant task and it is one that is nationwide.”