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The state government’s level-crossing removal authority was warned in writing that the CFMEU was forcing Big Build contractors to use controversial labour-hire firm Women In Construction, despite its rates being up to 20 per cent higher than competitors.
Women In Construction is at the centre of the latest Big Build scandal after revelations it had secured substantial taxpayer-funded contracts representing itself as a women-led supplier of female workers on Labor’s signature infrastructure scheme, despite being owned by a male serial domestic violence abuser and previously managed by a male drug trafficker also accused of family violence.
This masthead’s investigation also revealed the firm has deep links to bikies and violent criminals, who repeatedly used Women In Construction to place their friends, associates and relatives in lucrative Big Build roles.
Premier Jacinta Allan told a parliamentary inquiry on Friday that the allegations about Women In Construction were “disgusting” and “deeply, deeply concerning”.
Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Jeremi Moule said he was unaware of any briefings to his department concerning the company from Big Build agencies, police, or industry regulators about Women In Construction or related companies.
But this masthead has been briefed on, and separately sighted, concerns raised in writing by contractors to the Major Transport Infrastructure Agency (MTIA) in 2024.
The agency, which has since been renamed the Victorian Infrastructure Development Authority, sat within the Department of Transport which answered in 2023 to Allan in her role as a minister.
The complaints to the MTIA describe how the CFMEU had successfully demanded that contractors on rail project sites sack a labour-hire company that was not aligned with the union, and instead employ Women In Construction.
The MTIA was also warned that this change would mean up to a 20 per cent increase in labour-hire costs, but that the project managers had complied with the union demand.
While the state’s Labour Hire Authority is moving to rip up the company’s licence over concerns about its links to unsavoury persons, Women In Construction still supplies dozens of female workers on the state and federally funded North East Link project.
At its height, it previously supplied up to 250 workers across multiple Big Build rail and road projects, generating an estimated $2.5 million a week.
The state opposition and corruption expert Geoffrey Watson, SC, have attacked the Allan government for not moving more quickly to safeguard the Big Build from firms such as Women In Construction.
Sources, speaking anonymously to discuss confidential information, also said that Victoria Police and the CFMEU administration had separately received information months ago about criminal identities linked to Women In Construction.
The administration was told how the firm had been routinely influenced by bikie gang members to employ or sack female workers on the Big Build.
It is unclear if this information was ever passed to the state government agencies responsible for the Big Build projects.
Four Big Build insiders told this masthead, on condition of anonymity, that it was an open secret in 2023 and 2024 that the company was being part-managed by a notorious criminal, Wayne “Junior” Carter.
Carter was a former Builders Labourers Federation union official from Queensland who in 2012 was jailed for eight years over his role in a large drug-trafficking syndicate.
Upon his release from jail, the sources said that former union boss Joe Myles directed Women In Construction to employ Carter as its general manager.
“You just had to Google his name to figure out Junior was a serious criminal,” an insider from a Big Build project told this masthead on Friday.
“Everyone knew he had done serious jail time and was the union’s pick.”
Myles and Carter could not be reached for comment.
At a budget estimates hearing on Friday, Allan said the Labour Hire Authority had notified state procurement agencies of its intention to refuse Women In Construction’s application to renew its labour-hire licence.
The premier claimed police and industry regulators were cleaning up the construction industry, with 88 criminal charges laid, 151 licences cancelled and a further 48 licences blocked.
“The culture is changing. It is changing because there are licences that are being cancelled, there are charges that are being laid, there are whistleblowers that are being … protected,” she said.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson seized on the “absolutely sickening” revelations to restate her promise to establish a royal commission into Big Build corruption if the Coalition won November’s state election.
Allan, when questioned at a parliamentary inquiry about the latest disclosures of criminal infiltration of Big Build sites, was unable to say when she first became aware of the Women In Construction company or how much it had been paid.
“Those allegations that have been reported on today, and I do acknowledge there have been previous allegations that have been made about the treatment of women on works sites, is appalling, it’s disgusting and it is behaviour for which I have absolutely no tolerance for,” Allan said.
The premier said she believed women deserved to succeed in industries such as construction, which is why she had been committed to increase the number of women working in the sector.
These policies were used by Women In Construction to further their influence and the company, this masthead revealed on Friday, became a vehicle for underworld figures and bikies to place their relatives, friends and associates on Big Build projects.
“We are doing everything we can to protect women, to protect girls, to protect all workers on construction sites, because I have zero tolerance for this behaviour. It’s disgraceful, it’s disgusting. There is no place for it,” she said.
Allan restated to the parliamentary budget estimates committee inquiry that any criminal activity or involvement on Big Build projects should be referred to police before telling reporters afterwards that she would make the referral herself.
Watson said on Friday before Allan’s appearance at the inquiry that the premier would likely refer the matter to police but that this was “akin to perpetuating a cover-up given police can do nothing”.
Allan denied this when Watson’s comments were put to her at the inquiry.
“Unlike Mr Watson, I have absolute confidence in Victoria Police to investigate allegations of criminal behaviour on work sites,” she said.
“We have here in Victoria an independent investigative body with all the powers and tools that it needs, and we’ve strengthened those powers in recent times to investigate illegal criminal behaviour.”
Watson, who estimated that corruption on government work sites under the Andrews and Allan governments has cost taxpayers about $15 billion since the Big Build began, said the latest rorts exposed Allan’s “abject failure to tackle this scandal”.
Wilson said Victorians would be appalled to learn that the company exploited a government scheme which prioritised the hiring of women to find lucrative jobs for friends and associates of gangland figures and grow rich off Big Build projects.
“The allegations in The Age today are absolutely sickening and go to the heart of the rotten and corrupt culture surrounding Labor’s Big Build,” Wilson said on Friday.
“Labor spent years boasting about getting more women into construction. Yet according to these allegations, Labor’s idea of supporting women in construction was to funnel taxpayer money to a company owned by a serial abuser.”
Allan, before replacing Daniel Andrews as premier in 2023, served as the minister responsible for major projects, transport infrastructure and the state’s largest project, the Suburban Rail Loop.
“Jacinta Allan was the minister responsible for the Big Build for years. She oversaw the system, the contractors and the culture that allowed criminal and union-linked networks to infiltrate taxpayer-funded projects,” Wilson said.
“As minister and now premier, she could have intervened at any time – but repeatedly chose not to. Jacinta Allan won’t call a royal commission because she has too much to hide and too much to lose.”
Labor’s program to promote the involvement of more women in the construction industry was developed with the backing and input of the CFMEU, a union whose corruption under former state secretary John Setka was extensively detailed by this masthead’s Building Bad series.
The union has a significant presence on two of the state’s biggest projects, the Suburban Rail Loop and the North East Link.
Women In Construction has since 2019 profited from the program and exploited it to secure lucrative jobs for relatives, friends and associates of gangland figures.
The founder and owner of the company, Luke Ellery, was convicted in 2019 on two counts of breaching a family violence order and pleaded guilty without a criminal conviction to using a carriage service to harass a woman.
A convicted drug trafficker, Wayne Carter, who is also facing family violence-related charges, previously worked as the company’s general manager.
With Patrick Hatch
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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.
Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper’s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years’ experience.Connect via email.From our partners
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