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The Allan government’s infrastructure tsar privately warned the premier of serious wrongdoing on Labor’s $100 billion Big Build and was a co-director on a high-level board that estimated CFMEU lawlessness and criminality had caused cost blowouts of up to 30 per cent on taxpayer-funded projects.
The Big Build’s top public servant, Kevin Devlin, repeatedly raised concerns with then-minister Jacinta Allan about union misconduct and the abuse of its industrial muscle but felt his concerns were not adequately heeded, according to four sources who have spoken to Devlin about his handling of the scandal.
As one of a small number of senior public servants serving as a director of peak body Roads Australia, Devlin separately contributed to its board’s collective estimate – detailed in a confidential briefing note obtained by this masthead – last year that entrenched industrial lawlessness and criminality was fuelling 30 per cent blowouts on government infrastructure projects.
The Roads Australia board briefing note detailed how “criminal elements have been allowed access like never before” to major projects driving the cost overruns.
The revelation that Devlin – Allan’s chief infrastructure public servant – not only knew of the widespread CFMEU-linked Big Build problems but was said to have warned the premier about them and pleaded for significant reform when she was transport minister will shift the focus back on what Allan was told of the scandal prior to media revelations, and what steps she took to tackle the systemic issues.
It will also place fresh scrutiny on her steadfast refusal to call a major inquiry to track how taxpayers’ funds have been wasted or rorted on her government’s signature infrastructure scheme.
In response to the claims, Allan said through a spokesperson that Devlin had told the government he was anecdotally aware of a small number of possible criminal incidents.
Since March 2023, Devlin, who declined a request for comment, has headed the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority, which oversees much of the Big Build.
In the eight years prior to this, he headed the Level Crossing Removal Project Authority, which oversaw projects that hosted bikies, corrupt union officials and CFMEU-favoured subcontractors, including labour-hire firms, engaged in serious suspected corruption.
This masthead has previously revealed that multiple complaints about unlawful behaviour on projects under Devlin’s watch were documented by senior project managers. Devlin is now interim chief executive of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, the state’s biggest infrastructure project and a flashpoint for CFMEU tension.
In August 2023, Devlin was appointed to the Roads Australia board alongside senior Commonwealth infrastructure official Jim Betts and Queensland’s top infrastructure public servant, Sally Stannard.
Recently renamed Transport Australia, the group is Australia’s peak infrastructure and transport body and is directed by senior public servants and executives of large road and rail project contractors.
The 30 per cent blowout estimate was produced and informed by the board of Roads Australia – comprising Devlin and his fellow 11 directors – during a confidential meeting in March last year, 10 months after the Building Bad investigation revealed, in July 2024, widespread criminality and union wrongdoing on infrastructure projects.
Multiple board members told this masthead, on the condition of anonymity to detail confidential deliberations, that the media revelations and the approaching 2025 federal election prompted Roads Australia directors to discuss the allegations and seize the opportunity to pressure governments into reform. It is not suggested the 30 per cent figure was presented to Allan at this time.
After the meeting, Roads Australia chief executive Ehssan Veiszadeh produced an internal briefing note, entitled “Industrial Relations Roads Australia – media lines”, that was shared with Devlin and his fellow directors.
The document summarised the board’s March discussions, including the view that CFMEU misconduct was hurting taxpayers and the rotten culture on construction sites had been “ignored for far too long”.
“Under the current regulatory settings, safety has not only not been prioritised, it has been weaponised to cause unnecessary delays. Worksites have consistently been slowed due to spurious reasons and criminal elements have been allowed access like never before,” the document states.
“Taxpayers are paying heavily for these delays. We know that on some major projects, the cost escalation of these delays and the poor working environment is up to 30 per cent.”
With the board’s approval, Veiszadeh used the briefing note to conduct interviews with journalists about the urgent need for reform.
The 30 per cent blowout estimate that features in the board-backed briefing note was raised during the March board discussions not by Devlin but by the executives of the state and Commonwealth contractors hired by governments to build major infrastructure.
In reaching the estimate, sources said, the Roads Australia board considered both micro cost-impact factors, such as paying workers for ghost shifts or favouring more expensive CFMEU-backed labour-hire firms, and macro factors, such as the impact on productivity of unnecessary or unlawful CFMEU tactics.
Sources said that during the March meeting, Devlin described how wrongdoing on Big Build sites had become normalised and outlined several reforms he believed needed to be undertaken for a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix the CFMEU. His fellow NSW and Queensland public servants also described poor operating conditions in their respective states.
Contacted on Monday, Veiszadeh declined to answer specific questions about Devlin or other directors’ contributions to his April 1 briefing, but stressed that the problems it outlined are Australia-wide and “not isolated to one state.”
“For more than 12 months, Transport Australia, on behalf of our membership, has been publicly advocating for change in media interviews, policy reports, and through government submissions, including to the federal government’s Economic Reform Roundtable and the Queensland Productivity Commission,” he said.
In a previously unpublished interview conducted in April 2025, Veiszadeh relayed the 30 per cent blowout estimate to a reporter from this masthead.
“The industrial relations landscape is adding about a 30 per cent cost escalation on some of these projects,” he said in the unpublished interview. “On a $10 billion project, that’s a $3 billion cost escalation.”
Three Roads Australia board members said Devlin was an animated contributor to discussions about the extent of wrongdoing on the Big Build and the failure of governments to take meaningful action.
“I thought it was unusual that a public servant was so animated. He was clearly frustrated and seeking change,” said one source.
Two other well-placed sources who dealt directly with Devlin, but who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations, said Devlin told them he had raised issues uncovered in the Building Bad investigation directly with Allan while she was minister and claimed the government refused to take the strong action he believed needed to be taken.
One source said Devlin felt “very strongly” he was being ignored and had been in an emotionally heightened state since the Watson report was made public in February. They said he told people around him, “I was doing my job”, and that he had raised concerns about “bad behaviour” on sites with Allan while she was transport infrastructure minister.
The source added he was adamant he raised many different issues years before the Building Bad investigation was published, and that misconduct worsened some time between 2020 and 2022.
A separate source aware of a ministerial brief Devlin sent to Allan said it warned her of industrial relations pressures on construction sites, the CFMEU’s expansion on Big Build projects and its subsequent impact on project costs.
A third source who has had multiple dealings with Devlin said he had “absolutely made clear” he had told Allan of his concerns while she had ministerial responsibility for the Big Build. Devlin seemed deeply troubled by suggestions he or other public servants overseeing the Big Build had turned a blind eye to the problems on sites, the third source said.
In the days after the Building Bad stories were published, Allan announced the government would toughen anti-bikie laws and commissioned a review to determine how agencies can be strengthened to respond to criminal and unlawful behaviour on government sites.
Victoria Police has set up Taskforce Hawk to investigate allegations of criminality on Big Build projects and the Labour Hire Authority has cancelled more than 120 construction business licences.
In his Rotting from the Top report, released by the Queensland CFMEU inquiry, Watson alleged the Victorian government knew about CFMEU corruption and organised crime on state and federally funded major projects but did nothing about it.
Watson also told the Queensland inquiry that he had interviewed an experienced industry insider who “estimated the actions of the CFMEU had increased costs by 30 per cent”, but that other inquiry witnesses described blowouts of between 15 per cent and 20 per cent. None said it would be less than 10 per cent.
Watson settled on a “very rough” estimate of 15 per cent, describing it as “not unreasonable” and “probably conservative”.
Allan has repeatedly rejected the estimates, noting they were initially stripped from the Watson report by CFMEU administrator Mark Irving after Irving claimed he was “not satisfied that they were well-founded or properly tested”.
Watson’s estimates, along with the corruption buster’s findings that the Victorian government turned a blind eye to Big Build corruption and wrongdoing, were only revealed after this masthead uncovered that Irving had removed them from Watson’s report.
Watson’s Rotting From the Top report described how the CFMEU muscled out the rival Australian Workers’ Union from the Big Build and then used its industrial power to promote lawlessness and introduce bikies and criminal elements on site.
One of the corruption case studies Watson documented was the Hurstridge Rail Line Upgrade, a project that Devlin oversaw when multiple bikies were appointed as health and safety representatives of the union and government contractors complained in writing to the level crossing authority about how “blackmail” and other potentially unlawful union tactics were leading to cost blowouts.
In his previously unpublished April interview, Veiszadeh said the risk of blowouts was more acute on mega projects, where site shutdowns and safety controls had greater potential to be abused or weaponised. He said governments were taking action but the current regulatory environment was reactive to problems after they’d already occurred.
“What we need is a proactive regulatory regime that does include spot visits, does include audits of work sites, and it’s not just reliant on people putting forward allegations or putting forward incidents,” Veiszadeh said.
The Roads Australia board recently changed, with Devlin replaced by Victorian Transport Department secretary Jeroen Weimar.
Other board members include North East Link State Tolling Corporation deputy chair Aneetha de Silva, federal Infrastructure Department secretary Jim Betts, Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray and Queensland Transport Department director-general Sally Stannard. The business representatives include the CEO of Big Build contractor Acciona, Bede Noonan; Arup executive Kate West; Cimic CEO Pedro Vicente; and BMD chief executive Scott Power.
A Victorian government spokeswoman confirmed Devlin had advised the government he was “anecdotally aware of a small number of possible criminal incidents on sites in June 2023”.
She said Allan had referred the incidents to Victoria Police.
“We have zero tolerance for any sort of illegal behaviour – anyone with information about alleged misconduct on our worksites should come forward so it can be referred to the appropriate authority,” the spokeswoman said.
“We have taken strong action to strengthen Victoria Police and the Labour Hire Authority so that they have the powers they need, and it is working – with more than 70 criminal charges laid and 147 construction company licences now cancelled.”
A Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority spokeswoman said anyone with information about alleged misconduct should come forward.
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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.From our partners
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