In late 2014 Dyson Heydon sent requests to various police forces to form a multi-state law-enforcement taskforce to investigate suspected ties between organised crime and union officials.

Fairfax media reported that:

“federal and state police, as well as tax office personnel, have been asked to contribute to the taskforce, which could have as many as 35 members. The taskforce will cross state borders but be under the direction of the royal commission. Mark Ney, a former Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner, is expected to be in overall command of the unit.”

They are called Taskforce Heracles (that paragon of masculinity).

In December 2015, Prime Minister Turnbull issued a media release:

“The Royal Commission has revealed allegations involving multiple examples of bribery, extortion and blackmail in the nation’s construction industry. Taskforce Heracles – the existing Federal and State Police Taskforce attached to the Royal Commission – will be funded to continue its work investigating referrals and to ensure the very serious criminal allegations that have been identified are dealt with. A specialised Interim Working Group of regulators will be established to deal with civil referrals made by the Royal Commission. This working group will include the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Crime Commission, ASIC and the ACCC.”

With an ongoing commitment to devoting these sort of resources to union corruption there must be some serious shit going down – Dyson Heydon told us so ages ago.

In his interim report released in August 2015, Heydon listed four arrests.

Halafihi Kivalu, a former CFMEU official in the ACT, has pled guilty to two charges of blackmailing formwork subcontractor Elias Taleb.

In one case he asked for money (possibly $50,000) to be paid to assure Mr Taleb would get a contract, indicating that, if he didn’t pay, a competitor would and the work would go to them. From one side that does sound like blackmail. But, from the other, it also sounds a lot like a bribe.

The second instance involved a CFMEU shut down at Mr Taleb’s development. When questioned about the shutdown, Kivalu is said to have replied “Don’t worry, we’ll sort it out.”

He called Mr Taleb later and, according to court documents, said “Look I sorted it, but you are going to have to give me some money, let’s do the deal.”

Mr Taleb then paid Kivalu $20,000, according to a police statement of facts.

The next person arrested had nothing to do with unions. Tuungafasi Manase was an employee of Mr Taleb’s.

Mr Taleb gave the commission a note – allegedly written by Manase – that contained a list of alleged bribes paid to Mr Kivalu. But Manase, while giving evidence before commissioner Dyson Heydon, denied being the author.

Manase was later arrested and charged with perjury.

The third person named for prosecution was CFMEU organiser Justin Steele.

The complaint, made by a developer, was that Mr Steele had assaulted the developer while attempting to enter a Brisbane construction site to investigate complaints on matters relating to safety.

Mr Steele was taking photographs of unsafe practices on the South Brisbane site when the developer stopped him from entering, demanding he give up his phone. Mr Steele walked away, with the developer following him. An argument followed. The incident was recorded by both sides, with the footage showing the developer striking at the defendant, but providing no support for the claim that Mr Steele assaulted the developer.

This matter was first referred for mediation in June 2015. The developer cancelled the mediation and the matter was listed for trial. Following extensive preparation for trial, in December 2015 the developer agreed to mediation again which was set to take place in February, only for the developer to cancel again.

On 23 March 2016 the Queensland police dropped all charges against Mr Steele; police prosecution offered no evidence upon the common assault and associated charges.

Luke Tiley, Principal at Hall Payne Lawyers, said he is not surprised that the TURC police taskforce was unable to persist with the charges against the organiser.

“This is another example of inappropriate use of police resources to regulate the conduct of industrial relations. It is the second time in as many months that the TURC police taskforce has had to discontinue charges against officials of our client, the Queensland Branch of the Construction Division of the CFMEU”, he said.

The fourth person arrested and referred for prosecution for blackmail was CFMEU official John Lomax.

The charge stemmed from evidence at the commission, where it was alleged that Mr Lomax blackmailed a Canberra painting company and its principal into signing a union enterprise bargaining agreement.

The business owner alleged the EBA forced him to pay much higher wages to workers, $26 an hour instead of $17.

In October last year, the DPP formally dropped the charges. Mr Lomax is now considering a malicious prosecution lawsuit.

If, after devoting all the resources of a Royal Commission and a dedicated multi-state police taskforce for two years, a specialised Interim Working Group of regulators from the ATO, ACC, ASIC and the ACCC, and hundreds of millions of dollars, that is the worst corruption and criminality they can come up with, then I fail to see why we are going to an election based on this drivel.

As I pointed out in my last article, corruption in business, tax avoidance, bribes, and questionable political donations go unpunished.

People like Malcolm Turnbull with FAI and Arthur Sinodinis with AWH settle out of court. Michael Lawler resigns to avoid scrutiny. Reports from ICAC and FWA are withheld. And Kathy Jackson continues on her merry way hiding her assets – well the financial ones at least.

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