Queensland is doubling down on its PR-driven pursuit of the CFMEU

Sometimes cleaning up corruption requires a touch of theatre.

As Victoria’s Labor government defies pressure to call a royal commission into the CFMEU, its Queensland Coalition counterpart today said it had upped the budget for an inquiry into the construction union from $20 million to $95 million.

A few hours later, the inquiry demonstrated the public relations flair that has generated news coverage across the state all year.

In a mass email, the inquiry’s PR team distributed photos of 16 men present at a CFMEU protest in Brisbane in 2024 and asked the public for help identifying them — a tactic usually reserved for police hunts for suspects in serious crimes.

The email also disclosed the upcoming appearance by a celebrity witness. New York-based Mafia-busting lawyer Ronald Goldstock has agreed to appear at the inquiry to talk about the CFMEU’s operations in Queensland.

The budget increase followed the most dramatic hearings since the inquiry began last August.

Last week Grant Galvin, the former head of the Master Builders Association, which represents employers, cried as he described being bullied, abused and undermined by the union, pressure that triggered a breakdown and an attempt on his life.

Footage was shown of government offices being overrun by 250 to 300 union members in 2022 to demand a special deal that would cost the state $174 million. A senior public servant who resisted the deal, Neil Scales, described hearing the unionists searching for him room to room chanting: “Neil Scales, I smell corruption.”

Mr Scales’s contract was not renewed by the previous Labor government after CFMEU leaders complained about him, he told the inquiry. He now lives in Britain.

More coming

Led by Melbourne barrister Stuart Wood, the inquiry will continue until December, 2027. It was initially meant to finish by now, but David Crisafulli’s government is so pleased with embarrassing information being uncovered about the previous government’s relationship with the CFMEU that its extra funding will allow televised hearings to continue until the middle of 2027.

The inquiry’s prospects did not initially look strong. Its four top lawyers quit before hearings began over a management dispute with Mr Wood. The inquiry’s top public servant, Bob Gee, left on the same day.

The positions were quickly filled and the inquiry now has more than 100 staff. They include a team of ex-police officers and other experts conducting their own investigations into the union. There is an expectation they will produce even more dramatic evidence in coming months through former insiders who agree to speak out.

Forty-eight witnesses have already given evidence and another 200-plus are under consideration, the inquiry said today. The inquiry can force people to give evidence, which means hearings could build up to a climax with appearances by former assistant secretary Jade Ingham and former state secretary Michael Ravbar.

One of the questions being considered is whether Mr Ravbar and Mr Ingham used high-pressure tactics imported from Victoria to take over government construction projects from the Australian Workers’ Union.

In the past, the CFMEU’s construction division concentrated on apartment and office buildings and the AWU dominated roads, bridges, stations and other infrastructure.

The Victorians

On Monday in Melbourne, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan was asked if she could ever instigate a royal commission into the union, which anti-corruption lawyer Geoffrey Watson has estimated has cost the state some $15 billion in extra charges.

“I have been clear as premier that that is my view because anyone calling for a royal commission is . . . calling for delayed action,” she said, an answer that journalists interpreted as ruling one out.

Ms Allan argues she has given the police more powers to pursue unions and a judicial inquiry would slow progress investigating allegations the state’s “Big Build” transport projects have been infiltrated by union-associated crime gangs.

But even the police say they do not have enough powers to fix the problem.

Illustrating the challenges facing prosecutors, the owner of construction business B K Labour Hire was fined $3000 on Friday and avoided a conviction after pleading guilty to creating a false invoice. The business’s licence was cancelled in February by the state Labor Hire Authority after being investigated by the police’s Hawk Taskforce into the construction industry.

Among those who have called for a royal commission are former Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass, the former head of the state’s anti-corruption commission, Robert Redlich and Mr Watson, a director at the Centre for Public Integrity.

Mr Watson may inadvertently be responsible for a legal inquiry into construction corruption in Victoria. He is being sued for defamation by Mick Gatto, an industry consultant who claims he was defamed by Mr Watson on 60 Minutes last year.

Mr Watson told The Nightly he intends to try to prove in court that his allegations against Mr Gatto are true. What is known as the “truth defence” is notoriously difficult to establish and expensive for individuals, who do not have the same investigatory powers or resources as police forces.

But Mr Watson’s lawyers are being paid for by the CFMEU, which is controlled by an administrator, and Mr Watson was hired in 2024 to investigate the union’s Victorian and Tasmanian divisions, work that extended into Queensland.

Unless the lawsuit is dropped, it could be used by Mr Watson to put evidence he has gathered over the past two years to a judge, turning the case into a minor version of Queensland’s inquiry.