Integrity expert Geoffrey Watson SC says “nobody” from the Victorian Labor government has contacted him about his bombshell report alleging corruption in the construction union which he estimated cost taxpayers at least $۱۵bn, as its administrator warned “criminality” still exists in the sector.
Watson’s Rotting from the Top report was commissioned by a former administrator of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) and was tendered during a Queensland inquiry into the CFMEU in February.
Appearing before the inquiry for the third and final time on Friday, Watson said that despite the Victorian government – including former premier Jacinta Allan – making what he described as “bitterly critical” public comments about the report, no one had contacted him to ask how he arrived at the $۱۵bn estimate.
“Nobody from the Labor party has contacted me at all,” Watson told the inquiry.
“They made [statements] to the press without asking me anything about how I arrived at the report or what I did to achieve it.
“They were bitterly critical remarks. It’s hard to interpret them as anything less than suggesting I made it up.”
Victoria’s attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, and police minister, Anthony Carbines, described the report as “unfounded” and “florid ramblings”, respectively, comments Watson described as “just awful”.
“The police minister even had the temerity to say, if I had a problem, why didn’t I go to the police?” Watson said on Friday.
“Police minister, did you? Because if you had, you would have found out from your police force that I was going to them every week.”
Watson’s evidence comes after Allan was forced to step down as premier this week after she lost the support of Labor caucus, due in part to her failure to act on the corruption scandal. Her successor Ben Carroll’s first act as premier on Tuesday was to commit to a royal commission into the construction industry.
Much of Friday’s hearing was centred upon Watson’s claim in his report that Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto controls M Group companies, which he alleged received “favourable treatment from the CFMEU” on Victorian government Big Build projects.
In his report, Watson alleged company directors Michael Portia and Tony Paragalli were “dummy directors” acting on Gatto’s behalf. Gatto, Paragalli and Portia have previously denied the allegation.
On Friday, Watson said he “probably shouldn’t have said Mick Gatto owned them [the companies]” and “should have acknowledged that it’s probable that Paragalli and Portia also own part of it”.
But he stood by his central allegation that Gatto “controls” the companies.
“More than ever, it is my view that all the evidence points to Mick Gatto controlling the M Group companies,” Watson said.
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During cross-examination, Simon Wilson, KC, acting for the M۱ Trades Group, put to Watson that Paragalli and Portia were “simply correct directors, they may have done business with Gatto, but they’re not frontmen for Gatto.”
Watson disagreed.
It comes as the new director of the newly appointed administrator of the CFMEU, Michael Crosby, told ABC’s ۷.۳۰ on Thursday night agreed it was “wrong” for Allan to claim that corruption in the construction industry hadn’t driven up the cost of building infrastructure in Victoria.
“Somebody is clipping the ticket on the way through. Some of the corruption is about who gets to do the work and these are rich contracts because they’re big projects,” Crosby said.
He also said he believed there was “still criminality” in the sector as a result of “fixers” who are “holding themselves out as able to have some influence about who gets contracts and who doesn’t.”
Though he said he was “sceptical about royal commissions”, Crosby said it was “encouraging” that Carroll’s proposal would examine the entire construction industry rather than focusing solely on the union.
“We will fix this union up. It’ll be back in the fold of the union movement as a powerful, strong, ethical union. That’s not going to last if it’s sitting in an industry riddled with corruption,” he said.
Crosby also revealed he has an intervention order against former Victorian CFMEU boss John Setka. He said he was “ignoring” threats that he alleged Setka had made against him.
The Victorian government has been contacted for comment.
