Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

In recent days in Victoria, we have seen the full extent of the protection racket that the Allan Labor government is running for the Victorian branch of the CFMEU. For those who are not following this story in detail, with rolling revelations every day this week, the CFMEU has been a dominant force on Victoria's Big Build, a $100 billion program to build roads and rail right across the state—not in my electorate, of course, or, I doubt, in any coalition held electorates.

Over the last decade, companies covered by CFMEU enterprise agreements have been given public money to deliver these projects, with—it has now been revealed through various inquiries—the CFMEU wielding enormous influence over who gets hired and on what terms. Over the past year, a series of deeply troubling allegations have emerged. A damning report by barrister Geoffrey Watson SC and commissioned by the federal administrator of the CFMEU found that worksites had become drug distribution hubs, that convicted killers were being handed high-paying jobs and that organised crime and bikie gang members had embedded themselves across Big Build projects statewide.

What we have seen in recent days shows just how determined the Victorian Labor Premier, Jacinta Allan, and her team are to shield the CFMEU from full transparency and accountability. In a show of what we might call 'faux follow-through', the Premier made much of the fact that she had referred allegations regarding CFMEU misconduct to IBAC, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, in Victoria. But here is the rub: the Premier had already been told privately, well back in October 2024, that IBAC had determined that such a referral was outside its jurisdiction. The referral was therefore quietly dismissed, and Victorians weren't told until February 2026. The Premier knew that the referral had gone nowhere for over 16 months and stayed schtum.

Two days ago, on 2 March, IBAC Commissioner Victoria Elliott appeared before the Victorian parliament and told the parliament's Integrity and Oversight Committee directly that IBAC cannot properly investigate the CFMEU and Big Build sites because the laws are too weak. Commissioner Elliott told the committee that IBAC needs to have 'follow the dollar' powers—that is, the ability to look behind deals to see where public money actually ends up once it leaves government hands and flows on to private contracting chains. Right now, under Victoria's legislative framework, IBAC can investigate public officials and public bodies, but it is extremely difficult for it to examine subcontractors. It cannot follow the money when it moves from a government agency to a first-tier contractor, then on to a second-tier subcontractor and then on to a labour hire firm, which may also have some of these organised crime links. On the Big Build, which, as I said, is a $100 billion program delivered in significant part through private firms, the money flows from government to head contractor, to subcontractor, to labour hire firms, beyond the eyes of all of our accountability mechanisms.

The solution is obvious and indeed one that the Victorian opposition has been calling for for days: fix the problem; pass laws to give IBAC the powers it has been calling for. But that is exactly what has been blocked by the state Labor government. It's not just the opposition who's been calling for reform here. In December last year, the Victorian parliament's own Integrity and Oversight Committee recommended amending the IBAC Act to give the watchdog 'follow the dollar' investigatory powers—the ability to investigate private subcontractors where there is substantial connection to government funding, equivalent to the powers already held by the Victorian Auditor-General. Those amendments had the support of the Greens, the opposition and the crossbench, and on 19 February this year those parties were preparing to move precisely those necessary amendments in the upper house in Victoria. The Allan Labor government abruptly pulled the bill it was attached to, yanking it from the floor of the Legislative Council to prevent the amendments from passing, therefore shielding the CFMEU from proper investigation yet again.

If there are serious allegations involving taxpayer funded projects—allegations of organised crime, bikie infiltration, cost blow-outs in the billions—the Victorian public deserves full transparency. The independent watchdog has asked for the tools to do its job, the parliament has recommended it, the coalition and the crossbench stand ready to vote for it, and only one party is standing in the way. This is not a coincidence; this is a protection racket. The CFMEU has long been a major donor and affiliated union to the Australian Labor Party. Under this Prime Minister's leadership, the Labor Party has accepted $11.5 million in donations and the support of the CFMEU. That was before being forced to suspend the construction division's affiliation in July 2024 in the face of a mounting scandal.

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