{"id":768779,"date":"2026-06-30T00:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T00:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/768779\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T00:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T00:13:21","slug":"victorias-big-build-police-issue-reality-check-on-building-industry-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/768779\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria\u2019s Big Build: Police issue reality check on building industry corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Leaders of the police taskforce established by the Allan government to tackle Big Build corruption have declared there is \u201cno doubt\u201d organised criminals have infiltrated the construction program, and warned combating the sector\u2019s entrenched problems will require legislative change.<\/p>\n

As Premier Jacinta Allan said on Monday that she could not understand why people with evidence would not come forward to police, officers also described a struggle to recruit witnesses against the gangland figures profiting from the building sector because Victorians were terrified they would be threatened, firebombed or have their business shut down.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice Taskforce Hawk detectives Inspector Ross Mitchell (left) and Superintendent Dave Cowan.Justin McManus<\/p>\n

The police officers leading Taskforce Hawk, the elite squad created to combat crime and corruption on the state\u2019s Big Build and in the wider construction sector, also used an exclusive interview with this masthead to accuse Victoria\u2019s largest contractors of failing to ensure they are resistant to organised crime infiltration.<\/p>\n

While the police were careful in the interview with this masthead not to mention the Labor government \u2013 which on Monday flagged with contractors it would tighten rules on industrial fixers \u2013 or stray into political commentary, they were unequivocal that gangland-linked corruption had spread for years throughout the government\u2019s $100 billion Big Build infrastructure program and that new laws were needed to confront it.<\/p>\n

They described the wrongdoing as \u201cclearly organised, clearly strategic\u201d but often \u201cout of our remit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Allan has pinned her response to the crisis on an insistence that Victoria Police has the powers and the capacity to combat the corruption scandal enveloping her leadership and government.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

At a lengthy and testy press conference on Monday, she again insisted police had the powers to combat the scandal and refused to acknowledge the fact of corruption on the scheme she oversaw for years as minister.<\/p>\n

In the face of questioning about this masthead\u2019s revelations over the weekend about the costs of the CFMEU\u2019s lawless conduct<\/a>, fresh calls from ex-corruption watchdogs for a royal commission<\/a> and the ongoing role of gangland figures<\/a> such as Mick Gatto in the construction sector, Allan repeatedly said she could not understand why witnesses<\/a> were not reporting suspected Big Build corruption to police.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

In the interview with police, the three officers leading Taskforce Hawk said new laws were needed to combat construction sector corruption as some of the uncovered wrongdoing was not a crime that police had the power to investigate.<\/p>\n

Hawk boss Superintendent Dave Cowan revealed his detectives had identified \u201ca select number of organised crime figures who are 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that that\u2019s been happening,\u201d Cowan said.<\/p>\n

He said Taskforce Hawk had established that rorting was occurring on government projects, including through unnecessary traffic management labour hire, but it formed a \u201cgrey corruption\u201d area that could not be probed by state police because the wrongdoing was not captured by Victoria\u2019s criminal laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are tackling the business model that organised crime have adapted to exploit the industry, and this is taxpayers\u2019 money. This is infrastructure that the public owns,\u201d he said. \u201c[But] the grey space of corruption is much broader than the criminality remit that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cowan said it was not the job of Taskforce Hawk to estimate how much money had been ripped from the Big Build and would not be drawn on whether corruption-busting lawyer Geoffrey Watson\u2019s controversial $15 billion estimate was accurate.<\/p>\n

Cowan stressed that because state police could not deal with a range of \u201cgrey space\u201d activities, the force was exchanging information with other law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of actions that enable that [corruption to] occur prior to criminal conduct being committed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cowan said this involved how gangland players \u201csecure labour hire contracts, how they set up companies, how they use influence across a criminal network to influence commercial decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Outgoing<\/a><\/p>\n

Allan has repeatedly refused to provide an estimate of the cost of Big Build corruption, even after correspondence published by this masthead on Saturday revealed claims the state government had endorsed CFMEU action that had cost the Metro Tunnel project an unnecessary $200 million.<\/p>\n

Cowan said he suspected labour-hire rorting cases \u201csignificantly add to costs of contracts and the build of infrastructure in this state\u201d but that estimating the loss to taxpayers was an issue for regulatory agencies and the government.<\/p>\n

The police comments come as a 2018 tweet from Allan\u2019s husband, former CFMEU official Yorick Piper, emerged in which he appears to be attacking 2014 royal commission testimony by then Victoria Police assistant commissioner Stephen Fontana about the force\u2019s concerns bikies were infiltrating the union.<\/p>\n

In the tweet, Piper said the concerns about the CFMEU were a \u201cload of rubbish\u201d in response.<\/p>\n

Taskforce Hawk\u2019s second in charge, Detective Inspector Ross Mitchell, said that over two years, his investigators had made significant progress mapping an industry cloaked in the \u201cextreme\u201d fear of reprisal and in which it was \u201ceasier probably to just sort of pay the criminals to go away\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MickMick Gatto leaving home on June 3 after being interviewed by police.Joe Armao<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, this masthead and 60 Minutes revealed Mick Gatto was still earning large sums helping Big Build subcontractors gain access to or remain on major project sites and had received large payments as recently as this year.<\/p>\n

Asked why well-known underworld figures were still getting paid to represent companies on the Big Build as so-called \u201cindustrial relations mediators\u201d or debt collectors, Mitchell and Taskforce Hawk\u2019s lead detective, Randeep Atwal, both pointed to major legislative gaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a police perspective, it\u2019s not something that we have the power to investigate, unless we have a witness come forward and say \u2018I was blackmailed to make a payment, I was extorted to make this payment\u2019,\u201d Atwal said.<\/p>\n

He stressed, though, that the payments to gangland figures \u201craised a lot of questions\u201d and Hawk was \u201cdesperate for a witness to come forward\u201d and agree to testify about the payments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Mitchell said there was \u201cno doubt\u201d law reform was needed and Hawk was pushing hard for \u201cthe legislative change that is needed\u201d to regulate debt collectors and industrial union fixers such as Gatto, who has denied all wrongdoing and insisted he runs a legitimate mediation business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt there needs to be character testing,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cThere\u2019s certain people that shouldn\u2019t be in that industry and undertaking certain behaviours, whether it be debt collecting or as industry fixers.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Transport Infrastructure Minister Gabrielle Williams wrote to Big Build contractors noting \u201calarming reports regarding the questionable use of industrial mediators or \u2018fixers\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

Williams said the government infrastructure delivery agency (VIDA) would establish a mandatory register of approved industrial relations consultants and mediators.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

While that was set up, Williams said, contractors would be asked to list as soon as possible all parties providing those services either to them or to any of their subcontractors as well as what services they were providing and what they were being paid.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police has unsuccessfully pushed the government to regulate debt collectors for over a decade.<\/p>\n

Mitchell also said that even with legislative change, police could not \u201carrest our way out\u201d of the Building Bad scandal.<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cVictoria Police can\u2019t do this alone \u2026 there\u2019s not going to be change in this industry unless everybody\u2019s on board and everyone chooses to move forward with the change, and say that we\u2019re not going to accept that the easiest way out of this situation is to pay a criminal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Atwal said one of Hawk\u2019s biggest challenges was getting witnesses to come forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been running for a year now, and look, we can count on one hand the amount of people that have actually made a formal complaint to police,\u201d he said, while also estimating there were \u201chundreds of people, if not more\u201d who held the evidence to help police get to the bottom of crime in the sector.<\/p>\n

Atwal is an experienced organised crime fighter who was recruited from the drug squad to lead a small team of Hawk detectives.<\/p>\n

He said potential witnesses were \u201cconcerned about their personal safety … but they also have a concern in relation to their business and what impact making a statement will have on their ability to continue working in the industry\u201d.<\/p>\n

He urged people to contact Hawk, assuring potential witnesses that police would use everything within their power to ensure they were supported.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Allan said anyone with information about wrongdoing on the Big Build program should report it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why that wouldn\u2019t be immediately provided to Victoria Police, because as Victoria Police have demonstrated, through the powers they have, [they] are taking action,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"Mick<\/a><\/p>\n

Taskforce Hawk has made several significant arrests, most notably of bikie gang leaders who previously worked on the Big Build.<\/p>\n

It has also arrested former senior union officials over relatively minor criminal offending as part of a disrupt-and-deter approach that extended to a recent raid on Mick Gatto\u2019s home in connection with allegations of speeding demerit point fraud<\/a>. The taskforce has not yet laid a single charge in relation to Big Build corruption.<\/p>\n

Echoing criticisms from Victoria\u2019s Labour Hire Commissioner, Steve Dargavel, reported by this masthead on Sunday, Mitchell, who has led complex fraud and corruption investigations at Victoria Police for more than 20 years, said the major Big Build contractors also needed to do more to help police.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need them to engage with us on a greater level than they have been,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Cowan agreed it was not down to the police to stop payments from Big Build firms to identities such as Gatto.<\/p>\n

\" Photo: Matt Golding<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be a fundamental shift in the industry around how they go about engaging contractors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrincipal contractors and all contractors have an obligation to ensure that that money is spent appropriately, and that they\u2019re not involving criminal entities who will go on to exploit, intimidate, before any crime is committed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also need to get to a point where principal contractors realise that they\u2019re only going to get the work when they can demonstrate that they have built resilience to the infiltration of organised crime … I don\u2019t think we\u2019re actually there yet, because we know that some of these characters within the industry are still being engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell said he was encouraged that the Victorians from the building industry that are engaging with Hawk were fed up with the corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get a sense that people are sick of it, and I think that the legitimate hardworking people are sick of the previous culture and the ability for this industry to have been taken advantage of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t pay Gatto, don\u2019t get access\u2019: Companies with gangland figure on payroll<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"NickNick McKenzie<\/a> is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email<\/a>.\"ChipChip Le Grand<\/a> leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper\u2019s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years\u2019 experience.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-768779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768779","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=768779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}