The first week of royal commission hearings have zeroed in on a level crossing removal project in Melbourne's north. ( Supplied: Victorian government )
Major infrastructure projects carried out under 12 years of Victoria's Labor government are under the microscope, as a royal commission investigates alleged corruption.
The first week of hearings have delved into what Jacinta Allan as transport infrastructure minister knew about an alleged union takeover of a level crossing removal project.
The inquiry heard contractors believed her office had directed them to "bend the knee" to the CFMEU.
Melburnians were in a fourth COVID lockdown under then-premier Daniel Andrews when drama on one of his government's level crossing removals reached fever pitch.
Sunbury locals would have noticed their train line was out of action due to 24/7 works to put a road under the tracks, but they couldn't have known how badly the project was going.
From April 2022, officials from the Construction Forestry and Maritime Employees' Union (CFMEU) had begun regularly entering the Gap Road job site in Melbourne's north to raise safety concerns.
In the first week of June alone, union officials entered the site 31 times.
On June 6, all work stopped while union officials were on site.
With time and money on the line, project managers went to CFMEU headquarters the next day in search of an urgent solution.
The CFMEU had demanded non-CFMEU workers on site be swapped for preferred hired labour, at extra cost to the taxpayer. The construction contractors had complied.
More than four years later, what the Andrews government knew about these events and how it came to absorb the expense, is being combed through in forensic detail.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews pictured with ministers including Jacinta Allan in June 2022. ( AAP: Diego Fedele )
The Sunbury level crossing removal is the first case study of the royal commission into alleged corruption on the public projects, which began its public hearings on Monday.
CFMEU organiser Paul Tzimas's evidence made headlines on Wednesday after he told the commission about the pivotal meeting that ended the Gap Road work stoppage.
It was June 7, 2022 and Mr Tzimas was at union HQ with his superior, Joe Myles, and managers from construction company John Holland.
Paul Tzimas worked as a CFMEU organiser in 2018 until early this year. ( Supplied )
From the John Holland perspective, the goal of the meeting was to get works to resume.
The commission heard the civil engineers bowed to the union's demands to swap from Australian Workers' Union (AWU) labour hire to CFMEU-linked labour to fill traffic management and health and safety representative roles.
Mr Tzimas echoed earlier evidence from John Holland employees that the union made it clear that compliance with its demands was necessary to be considered for future civil contracts such as the Airport Rail Link.
Asked if anything was said about the union's influence over the Victorian government, Mr Tzimas said senior union figure Joe Myles addressed it in the meeting.
"There was a mention or words to effect of having a direct line to Jacinta Allan's office," he said.
It's an account that was disputed by Mr Myles's legal representative.
Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan pictured at a different level crossing removal in Hallam in April 2022. ( ABC News: Matthew Holmes )
Multiple projects heads were quizzed during the week over their memory of the same meeting.
Former employee for Rail Projects Victoria, Peter Wilkinson, told the commission Ms Allan's office had made it clear to him contractors wouldn't get further work on state-run projects if they couldn't solve the industrial dispute.
"I suppose the words were, if they can't handle the industrials in Victoria then they can't have any more work. And clearly the state was was not in a position to offer any assistance," he said.
One project manager, Joe Aygur from the Rail Network Alliance, told the inquiry Mr Wilkinson had told him to sit down with the CFMEU, which was the advice he and three others had acted on when they turned up at CFMEU HQ.
"The fact that we were being told we had to go there and bend the knee if you like was extraordinarily galling," CPB engineer Stephen Villella told the inquiry.
A briefing to Ms Allan from 2022 was tabled at the inquiry showing she was warned the extra costs of switching to CFMEU-preferred traffic management companies with steeper rates would blow out costs on major projects "well in excess" of $400 million.
Former union official Paul Tzimas also told the inquiry that during his tenure underworld-linked mediator Mick Gatto had given him a gold bracelet.
Mr Gatto had summoned him to a meeting and presented the valuable item, which he initially refused.
"It wasn't his way of trying to give me anything to have sway or to earn any favour," Mr Tzimas said.
Paul Tzimas says he had dealings with Mick Gatto from time to time during his role. ( AAP: Morgan Hancock )
The former union official told the commission he had knowingly hired 11 men with bikie gang links into health and safety representative (HSR) jobs on government infrastructure projects.
He said most of them had been employed onto public projects by a private labour hire company at the direction of the CFMEU.
The inquiry heard Mr Tzimas gave an HSR job to Johnny Walker, who was a convicted criminal on parole from a manslaughter charge with bikie links.
The commission revealed on Thursday that its investigative work was being undermined by the key government agency responsible for the Big Build.
The Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) had submitted a notebook about the Gap Road work stoppage with completed blacked out pages.
Chris Young KC said, only when compelled did VIDA, on the morning of that hearing, re-submit the notes mostly un-redacted.
He said it was "profoundly disappointing" senior current and former public servants "only engage with this commission when compelled to do so and seem otherwise content to do nothing".
Counsel assisting the commission Chris Young KC said the poor disclosure by a government entity defied what Premier Ben Carroll said the inquiry was set up to do. ( Supplied )
Mr Young also said the commission had only been made aware two days earlier of text messages of the Gap Road work stoppage.
He said the messages were written by former adviser to then-premier Daniel Andrews, Matt Toner, and chief of staff to the director general of VIDA, Matthew Phelan.
Mr Young also told the inquiry former CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka had described Mr Toner during a union delegate meeting in 2024 as "a good asset".
Commissioner Chris Kourakis said redactions and late disclosures of important information had "disrupted the orderly investigation" of the inquiry.
Commissioner Chris Kourakis says public servants called to provide information to the Big Build inquiry have a duty to the people of Victoria. ( Joe Armao: AAP )
"I encourage, in the strongest terms, early, genuine and comprehensive disclosure, by all serving or former ministers and public servants, and their advisors," he said.
Under its compulsory powers the commission has issued more than 200 notices on individuals, companies and government bodies, resulting in the production of more than 110,000 documents.
Mr Young told the inquiry on Monday some responses the commission had received from sub-contractors, labour hire companies and unions were "not frank or helpful".
"Some appear on their face to be untrue. Others show a surprising lack of knowledge of matters the submitter should have known about," he said.
