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The state Labor government secretly backed disgraced CFMEU boss Joe Myles as he engineered his union\u2019s takeover of a key rail level crossing removal project in 2022, according to allegations contained within detailed statements project insiders have prepared for authorities.<\/p>\n
One of the insiders wrote a memo at the time stating that the consortium carrying out the project, comprising John Holland and CPB, was warned that unless it buckled to CFMEU demands, it would miss out on winning the upcoming Melbourne Airport Rail project.<\/p>\n
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/9709d4ec8b34213edea8083747a5ba5678d6481d65daad1f8d7796f9ed72071d.jpeg\")
Former CFMEU boss Joe Myles and Premier Jacinta Allan.Nathan Perri<\/p>\n
The revelation comes as an expert relied on by Premier Jacinta Allan<\/a> and allied building unions to downplay claims of Big Build corruption has gone public to declare \u201ca lot of public money\u201d has ended up \u201cin the wrong hands\u201d and a Queensland-style commission of inquiry with clear terms of reference backed by royal commission powers is urgently required.<\/p>\n Professor David Hayward\u2019s comments severely undermine use of his previous work by unions and Allan to shut down calls for an independent inquiry into waste and rorting on the government\u2019s $109 billion Big Build program.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state government and its vast bureaucracy appear to have been content to wring their collective hands while doing nothing,\u201d Hayward says in an opinion piece published by this masthead<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cIt is not just the money that is of concern. We were sold that idea that privatising infrastructure would bring with it efficiency and taxpayer savings, when cost overruns, dubious characters, and high salaries alongside healthy profits seem to be the order of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n Hayward\u2019s strong intervention in the public debate comes as The Age obtained statements from two construction industry figures who dealt with various aspects of the Gap Road level crossing removal project in 2022.<\/p>\n The Gap Road project, in Sunbury, has emerged as a case study of Big Build wrongdoing allegations, amid claims this month that, in 2022, Allan\u2019s office pressured the project consortium to cave in to CFMEU demands<\/a> to employ a CFMEU-backed labour hire firm and CFMEU health and safety representatives on the project, despite this causing cost blowouts.<\/p>\n Last week, the owner of the labour hire firm, BK Labour, pleaded guilty <\/a>to falsifying paperwork connected to cash withdrawals that police suspect may have been used as bribes of unknown persons. The police investigation in this respect is ongoing.<\/p>\n The written statements \u2013 which are unsworn and yet to be tested in any inquiry\u2013 obtained by The Age are from two figures who are not being named out of concern for their safety. The two had various dealings with the Gap Road project and are willing to assist an independent inquiry if one is established.<\/p>\n One of the statements was written by a now former senior employee of a Labor government contracting partner and includes a contemporaneous file note.<\/p>\n Dated June 8, 2022, it describes how \u201cthe actions of the state government and its agencies\u201d in agreeing to the Joe Myles-led CFMEU takeover of the Gap Road site were \u201cin breach\u201d of workplace laws and should be referred to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.<\/p>\n The memo describes how the senior employee had been told a direction issued to the Gap Road project consortium \u201cto meet with the CFMMEU [as the union was also known at the time]\u2026 was a ministerial direction passed on through RV [Rail Victoria]\u201d public servants.<\/p>\n The consortium was also allegedly warned it would miss out on the upcoming Melbourne Airport Rail project if it did not agree to the union\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n \u2018The actions of the state government and its agencies are in breach of the Building Code 2016 … but also breaches the provisions of the Fair Work Act.\u2019<\/p>\n Insider\u2019s memo<\/p>\n \u201cThe MAR (Sunshine to Albion package) would be awarded to Acciona instead,\u201d the June 8 memo claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe actual outcome is CFMMEU health and safety representatives (HSRs) have commenced on the project today and other delegates will commence soon \u2026 [and] going forward the project will only be able to use CFMMEU aligned subcontractors.<\/p>\n \u201cThe actions of the state government and its agencies are in breach of the Building Code 2016 in terms of coercion and freedom of association requirements, but also breaches the provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009.\u201d<\/p>\n The second project insider has separately prepared a statement for authorities, in which he claims that, in mid-2022, he heard Myles state on several occasions how he had lobbied the Labor government to pressure the Gap Road contractor to cede to union demands or miss out on future projects.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Myles was sacked in mid-2024 amid the Building Bad scandal and was heavily criticised in the Watson report tabled in the Queensland commission of inquiry, but in 2022 he was the CFMEU\u2019s most senior Big Build official.<\/p>\n \u201cJoe Myles \u2026 [claimed he had] reached into \u2026 government to put pressure on the Gap Rd project team to do the deal and go and sit with the CFMEU, or else their position as being ear-marked to build the airport rail line was in jeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n This insider\u2019s statement claims Myles said: \u201cWe\u2019ve spoken with the government and we told them if RNA [the project consortium] don\u2019t do the deal, good luck with building the Airport Rail Line.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt clearly was about being in a position to hold projects to ransom, in order to dictate which subcontractors get used and don\u2019t get used. \u2018Preferred subcontractors\u2019 was the term thrown around and this was irrespective of whether they had a current EBA or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Anti-corruption expert Geoffrey Watson, SC, listed Myles, who could not be reached for comment, as one of the key players in the rot of the union in his report.<\/p>\n Union sources, not prepared to speak publicly, said Myles backers in the CFMEU insisted his Gap Road campaign was solely aimed at improving safety and conditions for workers on the site, which prior to the CFMEU takeover in June 2022 was the turf of the rival and much weaker Australian Workers\u2019 Union.<\/p>\n Jacinta Allan has previously denied the allegations of intervention by her office. In a recent podcast appearance, the CFMEU\u2019s now former political liaison officer Elizabeth Doidge \u2013 who is married to Myles \u2013 defended the union\u2019s relationships with the Labor government, describing them as entirely appropriate.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to have relationships with certain politicians and their officers, and of course you need political influence to be able to do that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Doidge, who has also left the CFMEU, said the union worked with state Labor to affect public policy and influence \u201cprocurement laws, so the laws which talk about how government projects are run and health and safety on those jobs\u201d.<\/p>\n Doidge could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Jacinta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8a9fdcfb2f627532a2ad9c24bf66fc557426b38a.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
In a statement on Wednesday, Allan repeated her denial that her office had intervened in the dispute and, addressing the claims of the second insider, said they were \u201cnot only wrong \u2013 they do not amount to evidence that any action was taken\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2607dc7d0bce6837f07d379a9a5b2856ce871e1e.png\")
Nick 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>.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":817823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-817822","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\/817822","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=817822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}