Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has weighed in on the Big Build corruption scandal as senior Victoria Police officers plead for more powers to clean up the sector.

Mr Albanese was questioned about Victoria’s worst-ever corruption scandal on Monday evening following fresh allegations that underworld figures were still extracting money out of taxpayer-funded construction projects.

“Where there is evidence of corrupt conduct in any area of Australian society, it’s appropriate the authorities, the police take action, that people are charged and have the book thrown at them. It’s that simple,” the Prime Minister told the ABC’s 7.30.

Senior officers in charge of the Victoria Police taskforce set up to tackle corruption in the state’s construction sector have said new laws are required for them to go after much of the conduct that has been reported.

Taskforce Hawk superintendent Dave Cowen told The Age that some organised crime figures were “adapting an organised crime model to apply it in any way that they can to secure the most amount of money they can under contracts for the Big Build”.

“We are tackling the business model that organised crime have adapted to exploit the industry… “(but) the grey space of corruption is much broader than the criminality remit that we have,” he said.

On Sunday it was alleged that underworld figure Mick Gatto has continued to receive payments from Big Build contractors since the CFMEU corruption was first exposed. Gatto has denied wrongdoing and insists his mediation business is legitimate.

Asked about the issue, Taskforce Hawk lead detective Randeep Atwal pointed to legislative gaps that limited their ability to fight back against organised crime.

“From a police perspective, it’s not something that we have the power to investigate, unless we have a witness come forward and say ‘I was blackmailed to make a payment, I was extorted to make this payment’,” Detective Atwal said.

Fellow Taskforce Hawk detective Ross Mitchell said the force had been pushing hard for the Allan government to give officers the powers they need to fight the industry “fixers” facilitating corruption in the state.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has repeatedly claimed that Victoria Police has all the powers it needs to clean up the sector.

“I repeat, anyone with any claim or any evidence or any allegation, that should be made to Victoria Police, who have the tools and powers they need as the independent investigative agency to do the work to weed out this rotten culture,” she said.

“Victoria Police is an independent investigative agency with the powers they need to deal with criminal behaviour, that includes corruption and extortion,” she said, adding that 93 charges had been laid since the scandal first broke.

Victorian Attorney General Sonya Kilkenny appeared to walk back the Premier’s claim on Tuesday, telling reporters the government was working with Victoria Police on whether additional powers were needed.

“I’m not going to go into details of conversations that I have with police, but we are working closely with Victoria Police,” she said.

“As you can see from reforms and amendments that we have been making, we’ve been responding to additional needs for police to have additional powers and resources, to follow these allegations, to gather evidence and to ultimately lay charges.

“Because that is how we’re going to stamp out this kind of activity on our construction sites.”

Asked to clarify whether the government was considering providing police with additional powers, the Attorney General confirmed this was the case.

“Yes, we will continue to work with Victoria police, will continue to hear from them, to discuss with them what their additional needs may be, whether that’s through legislative change, whether that’s through resourcing, but we’ll continue those conversations,” she said.