Minister's Office Warned Contractor It Could Lose Work in Victoria, Royal Commission Hears

A royal commission in Australia has heard striking testimony about an industrial dispute on a major Victorian rail project. The commission was told that a major contractor on the project was warned from a minister's office that it might have no more work in the state if it did not resolve the dispute with the union.

The royal commission, set up to examine the integrity of major public and civil infrastructure construction projects in Victoria, is holding public hearings in November that are set to run until 20 November. The hearings are focusing on a 2022 level crossing removal project at Gap Road in Sunbury.

The commission has previously heard that officials of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) shut down the site over purported safety concerns, and allowed work to continue only after two of their own health and safety representatives were appointed and the project changed its traffic and labour hire companies to CFMEU-aligned firms.

On Friday, the commission heard for the first time from Peter Wilkinson, a former official of the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (Vida). Wilkinson is now the executive general manager of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority and is a civil engineer.

Wilkinson told the commission that at the height of the industrial dispute at Gap Road, he spoke about the need for work to resume with his manager, Evan Tattersall. Tattersall told him that on either 6 or 7 June 2022 he had discussed the issue with the minister's office. Wilkinson assumed that meant the office of the then minister for transport infrastructure, Jacinta Allan.

Quoting Tattersall, Wilkinson said the minister's office had conveyed that if the contractors could not handle industrial relations in Victoria, they could not have any more work. According to his evidence, the remark referred to the contractors on the site, John Holland and CPB Constructions.

Wilkinson said he was aware at the time that the contractors were tendering for the airport rail, another major state government funded project, but he did not know whether the minister's office also knew this. Tattersall did not tell him what he should do with the information, but he passed it on to Joe Aygur, the general manager of the Rail Network Alliance involved in delivering the project. Aygur told the commission about the warning on Tuesday.

Asked by counsel assisting the commission, Chris Young KC, why no record of his conversation with Tattersall existed, Wilkinson said things were moving very quickly, so the conversation had to keep moving rather than being formally recorded. On Thursday, Young had strongly criticised Vida for its failure to disclose relevant evidence to the investigation in a timely manner.

The commission also heard on Friday from Stephen Villella, who worked for CPD Constructions and was the delivery director at the site. He said it had been extremely galling for construction company officials to have to bend the knee by meeting at the union headquarters to resolve the matter. He said none of the safety concerns raised by the union were serious enough to force work to stop at the site.

Villella also said workers on the project were fearful of the CFMEU and would stay in the lunchroom for long periods.