Officer of Gatto-linked company obtained labour hire licence despite strip club scandal

An officer of a company linked to Mick Gatto obtained a labour hire licence after a receiving 12-month ban on managing a licensed premise, the Victorian opposition has revealed as it continued to question Premier Jacinta Allan over companies linked to the gangland figure.

Transport Infrastructure Minister Gabrielle Williams also confirmed on Thursday that M Group, a collection of labour hire companies linked to Gatto, had a presence on the North East Link.

In parliament, Allan was again questioned about the presence of M Group companies in the state’s security, traffic control and labour hire sector.

Opposition industrial relations spokesman Brad Rowswell asked about the registration of one of these companies, M1 Security Services, in 2025.

He said public records showed the licence holder for the firm was Stephen Kyriacou, who in 2022 was banned by the liquor regulator from managing a licensed premise for 12 months.

The ban was made after a dancer at Dreams Gentleman Club was found dead, and it was reported the cause of death was “multi-drug toxicity”. Kyriacou was a “related person” involved in the business.

Rowswell asked why Kyriacou was deemed a fit and proper person to hold this licence given this history.

Allan said Victoria’s Labour Hire Authority had the powers needed to investigate the people Rowswell referred to.

“They have the powers to test the fit and proper person test that has been provided to the Labour Hire Authority,” she said.

M1 Security Services’s licence started in July 2025, before the Victorian parliament passed new fit-and-proper- person requirements for labour hire businesses.

The approval was made under the old requirements, rather than guidelines that take effect this year that include much stricter requirements such as association with other people who might not meet the criteria.

Kyriacou declined to comment when contacted by The Age.

On Thursday morning, Williams confirmed that M Group companies were working on the North East Link following questions from the opposition in question time a day earlier on whether they had been used on the project.

On Wednesday, the Labour Hire Authority issued M1 Trades & Labour Pty Ltd, an M Group subsidiary, with a notice of intent to cancel its licence, which Williams said was a meaningful step that could change whether the company was present on the project.

“Under the Labour Hire Authority’s processes, they can [still work on the project] until that final determination is made ... The advice I’ve received [is] that’s fairly prompt,” she said.

Williams said the authority had been “squirrelling away” with investigations and that more than 140 cancellations in the construction sector showed this work was bearing fruit.

“The work that has culminated in the issuing of that notice yesterday was a part of a broader investigation that has been taking place over many months,” she said.

Nationals leader Danny O’Brien asked Allan why six M Group companies had Department of Transport and Planning approval to work on roads managed by the state.

Allan did not address the department’s approval processes directly, but repeated that the Labour Hire Authority “has the powers it needs and has the tools it needs to take strong action, and it is strong action that it is taking”.

Rowswell said Allan had failed to explain why these companies were benefiting from taxpayer projects.

“She also refused to tell Victorians how much taxpayer money has flowed to underworld-linked companies, while continuing to reject calls for a royal commission into corruption on major projects,” he said.

M Group supplies labour hire and traffic management workers across major Victorian sites including several taxpayer-funded projects, and the cancellation of the licence of one of the company’s subsidiaries could trigger cancellation of the licences of other entities in the group.

On Wednesday, the Queensland commission of inquiry into the CFMEU held a press conference outside the offices of M1 Traffic Control Queensland to highlight concerns about its potential links to Gatto.

In a media statement, the commission pointed to a report from corruption-busting lawyer Geoffrey Watson, SC, last month that found M Group was a well-known front company for Gatto and that it appeared a new Queensland company was likewise linked.

The Watson report, tabled with the Queensland inquiry last month, said Gatto owned a number of companies within the M Group and that there was no doubt it received favourable treatment from the CFMEU.

He estimated one company in the group would earn $52 million in 2025.

“Gatto, of course, denies he owns the M Group companies, but that is transparently false. The attempts to conceal Gatto’s involvement are crude,” Watson’s report said.

Watson found that Gatto was a malignant influence and detailed several examples of what he said was “criminal conduct”.

Gatto has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and derided Watson’s findings publicly.

M1 director Tony Paragalli said he disputed “every single one” of Watson’s allegations and the suggestions made by the inquiry on Wednesday.

“At no point did anyone [Watson or the inquiry] ring us to ask about any of the facts,” Paragalli said.

Paragalli said Gatto acted as an industrial relations mediator for many companies in Melbourne and his engagement with M1 was a “straight-up business arrangement – he charges us $30,000 a year”.

Commissioner Stuart Wood said no findings had been made about the entity, or any other, but appealed for information, which he said would be treated confidentially. He said procedural fairness would be provided to anyone under investigation.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.