Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThese matters have not been determined by a court or tested through criminal proceedings,\u201d Irving said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor that reason, the report will be referred to the AFP, Victoria Police, the Fair Work Commission and other relevant law-enforcement agencies and regulators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Irving said the report had been released so authorities could take \u201cwhatever enforcement action they consider appropriate\u201d as the CFMEU entered a \u201cnew chapter\u201d.<\/p>\n
The full findings emerged amid calls for Irving\u2019s sacking, after allegations the report was redacted to remove findings that suggested the state government \u201ccowed\u201d to the CFMEU.<\/p>\n
Entire chapters were ditched, after reporting the government had a close relationship with the CFMEU and did nothing when union officials allegedly worked with organised crime figures at major projects.<\/p>\n
The report claimed the CFMEU\u2019s actions had increased costs, estimating it cost Victorian taxpayers upwards of $15bn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis final Watson report on Victoria forms an important historical record,\u201d Irving said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will provide an ongoing reminder of corruption that was harmful to workers, members, unions and the whole construction industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Irving took the reins of the union when it was put into administration nationwide in 2024, amid claims it had been infiltrated by bikies and organised crime figures.<\/p>\n
Watson doubled down on the claims regarding its Victoria branch when he returned to give evidence at Queensland\u2019s inquiry into misconduct in the construction industry in Brisbane on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody had stomped on this, they could have stopped it,\u201d he told the inquiry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to prove that to you \u2013 because they\u2019ve stopped it, the administration has stopped it \u2013 it\u2019s largely fixed the problem in 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victoria\u2019s attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, earlier refused to respond to the allegations until the federal report was released.<\/p>\n
She said her government had not seen the report and was unaware of its contents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are taking steps to eradicate this kind of \u2026 illegal behaviour on our construction sites,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The opposition leader, Jess Wilson, accused the government of turning a \u201cblind eye\u201d and suggested the premier, Jacinta Allan, was \u201cutterly compromised\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe cannot continue to deny knowledge or fail to take responsibility,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Federal Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson called for the workplace relations minister, Amanda Rishworth, to sack Irving.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CFMEU administrator \u2026 has overseen the removal and redaction of sections of a report \u2026 that has highlighted the corrupt cartel network that sits between the CFMEU and the Labor party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rishworth said the administrator had done more to clean up the union than the Coalition had during its entire time in government.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Irving has been clear and transparent about why parts of the report had been removed and it is because he was not satisfied that they were well founded or properly tested,\u201d she told parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bombshell report that includes allegations the Victorian Labor government turned a blind eye to union corruption and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-473543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}