Markets 
Police have launched urgent inquiries into a suspected “inside job” leak from the CFMEU’s Melbourne headquarters to the criminal underworld designed to encourage violent or other reprisals against a former union organiser.
The leak last week, which has also involved the criminal distribution of naked images of a female union member across Big Build and commercial construction sites, is the most serious security breach to face the CFMEU administration.
It eclipses the death threats to the union’s then administrator, Mark Irving, in 2024 – and highlights how Labor’s construction industry clean-up in Victoria is failing.
Authorities suspect corrupt CFMEU insiders are distributing highly sensitive information stolen from the union’s Melbourne headquarters to gangland and bikie bosses, corrupt former union leaders and bent ex-police in a move aimed at endangering the life of a former union organiser and severely harming his female partner.
The leak has triggered an immediate Victoria Police investigation and urgent briefings to the Albanese government and comes as Premier Jacinta Allan has apologised for the criminal infiltration of the $100 billion Big Build program but again insisted her construction sector clean-up is working.
Recently appointed CFMEU administrator Michael Crosby described the theft and “criminal misuse” of the former organiser’s personal information as appalling.
“It is a sign that criminals continue to try to gain influence within our Victorian branch,” Crosby said, while vowing the underworld would be forcefully resisted by his administration.
“[I am] determined to reform the Victorian CFMEU branch as a powerful, law-abiding force within the union movement,” he said.
Murray Furlong, general manager at federal union regulator the Fair Work Commission, described the leak as “gendered, aggressive and abhorrent”.
“No person should be threatened, targeted or subjected to reprisals because they are suspected of co-operating with lawful processes designed to address misconduct and improve standards in the industry,” he said in a statement.
He warned that his agency was considering launching its own probe amid evidence industry insiders were viciously targeting the former organiser as a “rat”.
Victoria Police confirmed it was investigating a reported data breach involving a former CFMEU member and “subsequent sharing of personal information and photographs”.
In a statement, it said specialist cybercrime detectives were investigating with help from officers on the construction industry-specific Taskforce Hawk. Police urged anyone with information to come forward.
Police may ultimately be powerless to act given the use of encrypted messaging services to conceal evidence of a serious criminal conspiracy that has placed the former union organiser’s life in danger.
The revelations come after senior police said on Tuesday that Taskforce Hawk was unable to tackle much of the entrenched organised crime-linked wrongdoing in the state’s construction sector because it was outside the police remit.
Police said they were also struggling to get witnesses to come forward, due to the fear of consequences from the underworld.
Furlong echoed the police concerns, saying the response to wrongdoing in the construction sector needed to be greatly expanded beyond the existing efforts from law enforcement and the administrator.
“All major participants in the building and construction industry must start showing conspicuous, steadfast and ongoing leadership to eradicate illegal, improper and intimidating conduct,” he said.
“This includes builders, their clients and funders, contractors, labour hire companies, employer associations, peak bodies and other unions, in addition to state and Commonwealth governments.”
The suspected serious security breach inside a union supposedly under administration provides further evidence that Labor’s two-year clean-up of the CFMEU’s Victorian headquarters has failed, despite significant reform progress in union branches in NSW and Queensland.
“Through my ongoing engagement with industry participants, I have observed encouraging signs of improvement in some states. However, these allegations underscore the extent of the cultural and behavioural problems that remain deeply entrenched in Victoria,” Furlong said.
The initial security breach is suspected to have occurred in April, when an electronic device stored inside CFMEU headquarters and under the ostensible control of the administration was allegedly accessed to steal a trove of photos, communications and other information belonging to a former union organiser.
The stolen data was then distributed to corrupt ex-CFMEU figures, mafia-linked criminals and a violent bikie boss affiliated with the Nomads.
Two ex-police sacked in the 2000s for corruption were also leaked the information, with one of them further distributing the stolen material to CFMEU and underworld figures connected to the Comanchero bikie gang.
Last week, in an apparently co-ordinated move, the stolen data was sent en masse via encrypted messenger services across Victoria’s underworld and via dozens of CFMEU officials, including many who then sent it to their own associates.
The stolen information included data exposing dealings between the CFMEU administration’s anti-corruption division and the former organiser.
Messages seen by this masthead show it was leaked in a manner designed to spread the false claim throughout the underworld that the ex-organiser is a “rat”, or informer to the authorities.
Not only is this incorrect, the ex-organiser was recently charged by Taskforce Hawk after refusing to assist detectives. The CFMEU administration forced the ex-organiser out of the union in February after he refused to assist its inquiries.
Being called a rat or informer in the underworld can carry a death sentence.
The data stolen included explicit photos of the ex-organiser’s wife, who is also a union member. The co-ordinated leak of the stolen data included these photos, and they have been circulated to dozens or possibly hundreds of construction industry participants.
It is a serious criminal offence to hack an electronic device or to distribute explicit photos of a person without their consent.
This masthead has spoken to several CFMEU insiders and delegates, not willing to be identified publicly due to the risks, but who received the stolen and unlawfully distributed messages.
In a desperate effort to stop the spread of the stolen data, the CFMEU administration released last week an all-staff message addressed to union delegates and health and safety representatives.
“Many of you will be aware of intimate images being distributed around the construction industry involving a former union organiser and his wife. Regardless of the views some may have about his role, no one deserves to have their personal lives exposed in this way,” the message said.
“If you come across this material, organisers, staff, delegates and HSRs [health and safety representatives] are directed NOT to distribute this further. This is being investigated by police and distribution may constitute criminal behaviour.”
The scandal is the latest crisis for the administration, which has suffered from repeated sackings and leadership instability over the past 12 months.
‘Don’t pay Gatto, don’t get access’: Companies with gangland figure on payroll
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.From our partners
Read the full article here
