{"id":480810,"date":"2026-02-15T03:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T03:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480810\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T03:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T03:20:10","slug":"victorian-opposition-pledge-royal-commission-into-cfmeu-corruption-if-elected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480810\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian opposition pledge royal commission into CFMEU corruption if elected"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Victorian Opposition has unveiled the terms of reference for a proposed royal commission into the CFMEU corruption scandal that may have cost taxpayers an estimated $15 billion.<\/p>\n

Liberal leader Jess Wilson said her party would investigate the full extent of the corruption on Victoria’s Big Build sites and accused the government of turning a “blind eye”.<\/p>\n

“We will chase down every single cent of that $15 billion,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We want to know where it went, into whose pockets, because this isn\u2019t the government\u2019s money, this isn\u2019t Jacinta Allan\u2019s money, this is taxpayer’s money.”<\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/p>\n

Jess Wilson called the CMFEU saga the “biggest corruption scandal in Victoria’s history”. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Among the proposed terms of reference are investigations into the link between CFMEU misconduct and organised crime, and an investigation into the Labor government’s culpability.<\/p>\n

This week, Premier Jacinta Allan said the government had no intention of calling a royal commission, and was instead focused on “taking action now”.<\/p>\n

“Royal commissions that haven\u2019t worked in the past, didn\u2019t deal with issues quite clearly because it remained an issue after that royal commission had concluded,” Ms Allan said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Government in eye of corruption storm<\/p>\n

The Allan government has been under pressure this week following the publication of a redacted report into the Victorian branch of the CFMEU.<\/p>\n

The report written by Geoffrey Watson SC and tendered to Queensland’s Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday, detailed widespread corruption, violence and extortion in the CFMEU.<\/a><\/p>\n

Among the claims in the report were estimations that the actions of the CFMEU had cost the Victorian taxpayer around $15 billion, and that the state Labor government has been “cowed” by the industrial power of the union.<\/p>\n

Mr Watson said he had no doubt the government knew was happening inside the CFMEU but did nothing as it wanted its Big Build projects to be completed.<\/p>\n

They were claims the premier addressed on Thursday, just hours after a former CFMEU official was arrested and charged with blackmail.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms Allan said any allegations of misconduct that were presented to her in her time as infrastructure minister were handed to the relevant authorities.<\/p>\n

Ms Allan also refuted the estimated figure of $15 billion in taxpayer losses, and said it was untested.<\/p>\n

But the estimate was backed up by the Fair Work Commission’s general manager Murray Furlong in Senate hearing on Thursday, who said it was consistent with what he had heard.<\/p>\n

The government has not committed to testing the figure, with Housing Minister Harriet Shing saying on Sunday the government had referred all matters to relevant authorities.<\/p>\n

“In determining the extent of any issues within the construction industry, we have referred matters to IBAC, referred matters to Victoria Police,” Ms Shing said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian Opposition has unveiled the terms of reference for a proposed royal commission into the CFMEU corruption…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,79005,19673,44,25027,84,30954,7893],"class_list":["post-480810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cfmeu","tag-corruption","tag-news","tag-opposition","tag-politics","tag-royal-commission","tag-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480810","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=480810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}