Victoria's desalination plant and the Barangaroo development in Sydney implicated in joint Fairfax/ABC investigation

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The building industry has been hit by controversy following reports union officials are making corrupt deals to help companies linked to organised crime secure construction contracts.



Victoria's desalination plant and the Barangaroo development in Sydney are among projects that companies connected to major crime figures are involved in, according to media reports.

The ABC said a joint investigation with Fairfax Media implicated a number of Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) members in New South Wales and Victoria in corrupt deals, including bribery and extortion.

It reported that a Victorian CFMEU official, Danny Berardi, resigned immediately after the media companies supplied evidence that he had two companies help renovate his properties in exchange for getting them work on Melbourne construction sites.

The CFMEU national secretary, Dave Noonan, said he was "concerned about any criminal activity in the industry", but that the union was not the regulator.

"These are issues for ASIC and the police force and we have consistently called on them to do their job," Noonan said.

The director of Fair Work Building & Construction, Nigel Hadgkiss, told the ABC he was aware of evidence about "the payment of bribes to senior union officials" in Victoria, but said police had not previously acted on evidence of corruption in the industry.

He said the lack of action made way for criminals and corrupt officials, and that was "very frustrating".

The NSW premier, Barry O'Farrell, said the revelations about corruption at Barangaroo, the country's largest urban construction site were concerning and an investigation was warranted.



It was revealed that a lucrative contract at James Packer's $6bn casino project had been granted to a labour hire company run by George Alex, who has known links to criminal and bikies gangs, after intervention from allegedly corrupt Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) officials.



"Matters like this are of serious concern, not just to the state government but also to the construction sector," O'Farrell said.



But it was important to remember that only about 50 of the 600 workers at the site were caught up in the allegations, he said.



"It appears to be a limited involvement by very colourful characters," the premier told reporters on Tuesday.



O'Farrell has asked the Barangaroo Development Authority to investigate and report to the government "as soon as possible."



No state funding was provided to programs associated with Alex's company Active Hire, O'Farrell said.



The allegations were a "wake-up call" for the federal Greens and Labor, who needed to stop blocking federal legislation to reinstate the construction industry watchdog, O'Farrell said.



The NSW opposition leader and former Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, said the "extremely serious allegations" should be investigated by police.



"There should be absolutely zero tolerance for any form of corruption or illegal activity, wherever it occurs," he said in a statement.







