Mr Gatto claimed he did not charge large fees to secure union-endorsed enterprise bargaining agreements. ''But what I do is I look after a few people in the industry,'' he said. ''I have been there for a while, and they pay me a retainer to look after them. I look after their union issues.

''It might mean they haven't paid their Cbus [superannuation] … or something like that, so I go and see the builder and make sure it's paid. I ring up the union and tell them that it's all done and the matter's fixed. I fix it up, rather than them interfering with the builder or stopping their jobs. Nine times out of 10, I address the issues and everyone's happy.''

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Mr Gatto admitted there was ''the odd corruption here and there'' in the building industry, but said the same was true of all industries ''from Parliament down''.

"You might get the odd one that is corrupt and they get found out, and they get thrown out and that's how they deal with it and that's the same with any industry,'' he said. ''Most of them are straight shooters. All they do is worry about the Australian worker.''