Premier Ben Carroll’s royal commission isn’t too little. But it may be too late.
The good news for Victorians sick of seeing Jacinta Allan shirk responsibility for entrenched wrongdoing on the Big Build is that the new premier has empowered his royal commissioner, former senior South Australian judge Chris Kourakis, to call Allan to testify about the rot she presided over as minister.
That Kourakis will wish to do so is a certainty.
We can guess as to Allan’s motive in refusing to call an inquiry to publicly examine why the gangster-infused CFMEU was given near free rein over Labor’s Big Build projects and what this cost taxpayers, but Carroll’s royal commission has the power to compel evidence to make findings about these matters.
Also on the ex-judge’s witness list will be Dan Andrews, gangland veteran Mick Gatto and his good mate, disgraced ex-union boss John Setka, along with dozens of others: the public servants, tier-one company bosses, subcontractors, union officials, and gangland figures who variously contributed to, or hold important information, about how Labor’s election-winning infrastructure scheme became so corrupted it may cost the ALP government in November.
This goes to the “too late” component of Carroll’s royal commission Hail Mary.
If you believe the polls, Kourakis will barely have his feet under his new desk when he is sacked by Premier Jess Wilson after November 28 and replaced by her choice of royal commissioner.
Carroll should be applauded for calling an inquiry with broad enough reach to look under the bonnet of his own government and interrogate his two predecessors.
It is an obviously necessary move given the level of wrongdoing in the building sector and on taxpayer-funded projects, but it is also politically brave because Carroll’s royal commission will inevitably air Labor’s dirty CFMEU laundry.
To borrow the infamous saying from the Vietnam war, Carroll may well be destroying the village in order to save it.
Still, setting up a genuine commission with sweeping jurisdiction gives his party the best hope of avoiding annihilation on November 28.
It is also inescapable that Carroll’s royal commission should have been called by Labor two years ago, or even 12 months ago.
Allan’s refusal to do so, with Carroll by her side as deputy premier, allowed the Gattos of the construction sector to keep getting rich while simultaneously denying Victorians the truth about how their tax dollars were being used.
It is almost farcical that as Carroll was setting out his royal commission vision on Thursday morning, the Queensland commission of inquiry into the CFMEU and building sector was roasting Australian infrastructure firm BMD for hiring a security firm that used three Melbourne Comanchero bikie chiefs to stand over a CFMEU activist on a Brisbane site.
Via the Queensland inquiry (and through two years of reporting in this masthead), the public has learnt that the Comanchero gang has been extremely active in Victoria’s building sector. BMD is also making a mint on Big Build projects.
Allan’s refusal to call an inquiry has meant that BMD and the Comanchero crew that did its dirty work have so far escaped official public scrutiny in Victoria (although the Queensland inquiry aired police surveillance of a Comanchero boss and his Melbourne associate poring over a story in The Age about the gang’s activities last June).
Even if Kourakis acts with incredible haste, it’s unlikely he will be able to start grilling key witnesses for at least a few months.
But Carroll doesn’t need commissioner Kourakis’ findings in 12 months to act. There’s plenty he can do now.
As premier, he should immediately examine whether BMD should remain on Victorian projects in light of the compelling circumstantial evidence aired this week in Queensland placing two of its senior executives in very close proximity to a terrifying Comanchero standover plot.
Similarly, it’s time for the premier to attempt to turf gangland-aligned companies off the Big Build. I drove past one just this week on a major freeway project.
Carroll promised on Thursday that his royal commission will “follow the money”.
But he only needs to look at Victorian Labor’s election coffers to see that his party received donations from gangland-linked and CFMEU-aligned labour-hire firms in 2022. Labour hire is at the absolute heart of the Big Build and CFMEU rot.
When I recently asked Allan about these same donations, the then premier shirked the question. Carroll did so again on Thursday.
If Victoria’s 50th premier does indeed want to make integrity his legacy and differentiate himself from his predecessor while waiting for his royal commission to make strides, an easy and obvious place to start is to return any donations from Big Build labour-hire firms, or from any building company that placed Gatto on their payroll or whose owners have faced criminal charges.
As Carroll must well understand, Victorians are well and truly sick of waiting for decisive action from their leaders.
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Nick McKenzie 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.
