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A top official leading the clean-up of Victoria’s scandal-ridden construction sector will step aside from his role in August, leaving the state without a key figure in the fight against corruption and worker exploitation in the building industry.
Labour Hire Licensing Commissioner Steve Dargavel has told staff he intends to leave on the eight-year anniversary of his appointment as Victoria’s chief regulator of businesses that supply tens of thousands of temporary workers to construction sites, the agriculture sector, the private security industry and other parts of the state economy relying on itinerant labour.
During his tenure, Dargavel has chalked up significant wins investigating and penalising companies exploiting vulnerable migrant workers on farms. He also recently gained national attention for calling out retail giants Coles and Wesfarmers for perpetuating the exploitation of security guards in the retail sector and employed by the now-collapsed and disgraced security giant MA Services Group.
But it has been Dargavel’s efforts combating allegedly unscrupulous temporary worker supply firms in the construction sector that attracted the most scrutiny, given the suspected rampant infiltration by organised crime figures and corrupt CFMEU officials in the operations of labour hire companies turning over hundreds of millions of dollars on the state government’s Big Build.
Over the past 12 months, Dargavel has sought to shut down several firms accused of wrongdoing, sparking fierce legal challenges from the companies but winning the private praise of police agencies separately combating crime in the construction sector.
Dargavel’s decision to quit is a blow to the state government, leaving it with one fewer aggressive senior enforcer attacking wrongdoing in a sector historically resistant to the clean-up efforts of law enforcement agencies and regulators.
Dargavel’s work has also been cited repeatedly by Premier Jacinta Allan as evidence that her strategy is working to clean up the government’s signature $100 billion Big Build infrastructure program.
In a statement, Dargavel praised the work of his investigators, but flagged that much was yet to be done to clean up the labour hire industry.
“Our highly capable staff, with the support of government and agency partners, have taken hundreds of actions and protected many thousands of workers from egregious exploitation,” he said.
“With recently strengthened powers and a dedicated team, the authority is well placed for the significant work ahead, and I wish the organisation continued success.”
Dargavel, a former union leader turned federal Labor politician, was initially seen by police and other regulators as a political pick by state Labor with little enforcement experience.
However, multiple official sources said Dargavel won over police and other partner agencies with his fearless and apolitical approach to attacking shonky providers.
“He is one of the few regulators who really tried to take on companies which have operated for years with utter impunity,” one senior federal official told this masthead.
“The Labour Hire Authority can only do so much, but Steve tried to do as much as he could. When you mention the involvement of bikies or other criminal elements to some regulators, they handball it to the cops, but the [labour hire] authority [under Dargavel] has been having an absolute crack.”
In April, Dargavel used his agency’s powers to commence an investigation into a bikie gang leader and former influential CFMEU delegate over allegations that he was running an unlicensed labour hire firm.
Last week, Dargavel separately cancelled the licence of a labour hire company linked to criminals and drug traffickers and which had secured Victorian government funding and a major contract on Australia’s biggest federal government-backed wind farm.
That licence cancellation came after Daragavel’s investigations team uncovered the firm, 24-7 Personnel, was being secretly managed by a violent murderer.
The company is the fifth major labour hire firm targeted by the regulator after this masthead reported they had profited from major government infrastructure projects. This masthead revealed a fortnight ago that one of the firms, Women in Construction, was run for years by men with serious criminal convictions.
The Labour Hire Authority has moved to cancel Women in Construction’s licence, although it is still turning over millions of dollars supplying workers to the North East Link.
The authority has also cancelled licences of dozens of smaller labour hire players, although they are mostly not among about a dozen major operators that carved up the Big Build program, including eight firms with deep links to underworld figures or corrupt CFMEU officials and which have been exposed in media reporting and targeted by the regulator or police.
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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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