The trade union royal commission has heard explosive allegations that tonnes of documents were destroyed when the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) was subpoenaed by the commission.

Former CFMEU president Dave Hanna today told the inquiry truckloads of records were removed and delivered to his property at the request of then CFMEU divisional state secretary Michael Ravbar around the time the royal commission requested them.

The commission then heard an audio recording made in July of a conversation between Mr Hanna and the union's national assistant secretary, Leo Skourdoumbis.

In the recording, Mr Hanna told Mr Skourdoumbis he organised a tip truck for the paperwork "that dumped seven tonnes of documentation the day we got the subpoenas to provide all the paper work on the 1st of April, April Fools' Day".

Mr Hanna was also heard saying Mr Ravbar enlisted his daughter and staff to shred documents at the CFMEU's Brisbane offices.

Mr Hanna: ... Ravbar had all the training coordinators come in, his daughter to come in and do shredding yadda yadda. Loaded up two horse float trailers. Mr Skourdoumbis: Can't blame him for that. Mr Hanna: Hey? Mr Skourdoumbis: Can't blame him for that. Mr Hanna: No you can't. But um got all that done, there was f***ing mountains and mountains of ... (indistinct) ... seven tonnes' worth. Mr Skourdoumbis: Really? Mr Hanna: Yep, it was weighed, the truck was weighed when it got dumped that's how much f***ing paper, paper is heavy. Paper is heavy. It all got taken down to my f****ing joint where he stores his f****ing car trailer and he stores his caravan.

Mr Skourdoumbis told the inquiry he did not follow up the allegations or report them to other officials.

He said there was no love lost between Mr Ravbar and Mr Hanna at the time and he saw the claims as part of an internal spat.

Under questioning, Mr Hanna told the commission he had embellished some of the details in the audio recording, including the amount of paperwork.

He said he did not have any concerns the documents were needed by the royal commission.

Mr Ravbar is expected to give evidence later this week and the hearings are expected to finish at the end of the week.

Ex-CFMEU boss thought he would be billed for construction costs

Earlier, Mr Hanna told the royal commission he expected he would eventually be billed for tens of thousands of dollars' worth of work done to his new house.

The inquiry has been probing whether Mr Hanna, who was at the time head of the Builders Labourers Federation, fraudulently benefited from work on his house, south of Brisbane, being paid for by developer Mirvac.



Mr Hanna told the commission he did not receive invoices for electrical, plumbing, carpentry and other work on the house worth about $100,000.

But he said he did not see it as free work and expected to get billed eventually.

The inquiry also heard Mr Hanna thought a Mirvac executive had helped organise the work on the house "because I'm a good bloke, he's a good bloke".

The commission heard last week that while Mr Hanna had little idea of what it his home's construction would cost, former Mirvac project manager Matthew McAllum estimated he had received about $150,000 worth of free work.

Asked by the inquiry if he was worried about the perception that he was receiving favours because of his position in the union, Mr Hanna said he was not.

"Not really because people do work, if they don't want to send you a bill that's not my part," he said.

"I was happy to accept a bill and happy to pay a bill and I had the finance at the time to do so.

"I didn't see it as free work, I was seeing that at some point I was going to get an invoice for works done."

Mr Hanna later became Queensland president of the CFMEU but resigned from that position last month citing an ongoing illness.

Today he stood firm that all his dealings with Mirvac were above board and that he had no idea costs were being passed on to Mirvac.