Big Build royal commission LIVE updates: Big Build project, CFMEU under microscope as state’s long-awaited construction royal commission begins
The inquiry begins its first block of public hearings this week and is expected to examine the role of former premier Jacinta Allan and her office in a controversial road and rail project.
The first block of public hearings for the Royal Commission into the Integrity of Major Public and Civil Infrastructure Construction Projects in Victoria is scheduled to begin this week. The inquiry is expected to examine the role of former premier Jacinta Allan and her office regarding a controversial road and rail project, according to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
The commission follows allegations of corruption, criminal wrongdoing, and serious misconduct surrounding the state's $100 billion Big Build project. ABC News AU reports that allegations involving the criminal infiltration of the CFMEU were first aired by Nine Newspapers in 2024, including claims that criminals acting as union delegates received hundreds of thousands of dollars on government-funded projects.
Following the federal government placing parts of the union into administration in August 2024, administrator Geoffrey Watson SC reported that the Victorian branch of the CFMEU had "collapsed into a squalid mess." ABC News AU notes that Watson suggested Victorian taxpayers may have lost as much as $15 billion to organised crime on Big Build projects.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News AU — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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