Today’s extraordinary revelations that Jacinta Allan’s own office personally intervened to force a CFMEU-aligned labour hire company onto the Gap Road level crossing removal project in Sunbury underline why the Premier won’t call a Royal Commission: because she has too much to hide and too much to lose.
The company that won the work, B K Labour, is under investigation by Taskforce Hawk over suspicions it gave cash kickbacks to win Big Build contracts.
Sources told The Age that the intervention came in mid-2022, after CPB and John Holland resisted aggressive CFMEU demands to install B K Labour and place CFMEU delegates on what was originally a project associated with the rival Australian Workers’ Union and one of its affiliated labour hire firms.
Sources at Rail Projects Victoria were allegedly told by Allan’s ministerial office to cut a deal with the CFMEU, while CPB and John Holland were told their willingness to deal with the CFMEU could affect their prospects of winning contracts on the Melbourne Airport Rail project.
Shadow Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Evan Mulholland, said: “This is exactly why the Premier has resisted calls for a Royal Commission, because she has too much to lose and too much to hide.
“Premier Jacinta Allan must explain what she knew and why her office intervened, at the very same time in 2022 when the CFMEU was aggressively campaigning for Labor’s re-election.
“Victoria isn’t working under Labor and the only way to stop the rot is to change the government.
“Is it any wonder that $15 billion has been siphoned off taxpayer funded construction sites into the pockets of criminals when Jacinta Allan’s office was involved in enabling this wicked behaviour?
“Only our Liberal and Nationals team will immediately call a Royal Commission, empower IBAC to follow the money immediately and put a new Construction Enforcement Victoria watchdog on the beat.”
