Former top construction union boss Joe Myles boasted of having “a direct line to Jacinta Allan’s office” during a pivotal meeting about control of a level-crossing removal project, a former union official claims.
uncertain
official → boast → project
Paul Tzimas, a former Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union organiser, told the royal commission that Myles also threatened to lobby the state government not to award the project’s builders a contract for Melbourne Airport rail during a tense meeting at the union headquarters.
asserted
Myles → tell → headquarters
The meeting on June 7, 2022 was called after the union had shut down the $110 million Gap Road level-crossing removal project in Sunbury for two days and has been a focal point for the commission in its first week of witness testimony.
asserted
union → call → testimony
Tzimas told the hearing that Myles, his boss, told two John Holland managers that if their consortium did not agree to the union’s demands – which included appointing union-favoured labour hire and traffic management firms – it could jeopardise their prospects of working on airport rail.
uncertain
it → tell → rail
“There was a mention that, or words to the effect, about sort of having a ‘direct line to Jacinta Allan’s office’,” Tzimas said.
asserted
Tzimas → be → office
“I was probably surprised because I didn’t feel or think that as a union we had that type of influence.”
asserted
we → feel → influence
A spokesman for Allan declined to comment.
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spokesman → decline → Allan
Tzimas said it was well known that Elizabeth Doidge, who is married to Myles, was employed as the CFMEU’s political organiser and government liaison.
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who → say → organiser
She has previously defended the union’s relationship with the government.
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She → defend → government
Myles was sacked in mid-2024 amid the Building Bad scandal and was heavily criticised in the report of Geoffrey Watson, SC, tabled in the Queensland commission of inquiry, but in 2022 he was the CFMEU’s most senior Big Build official.
asserted
he → sack → 2022
A lawyer for Myles quizzed Tzimas about aspects of his recollection, including whether he remembered Myles saying he was ill with vertigo on the day of the key meeting, but did not directly challenge his account.
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he → quiz → account
Tzimas said the rail alliance was viewed by the union as having a hostile approach to industrial relations.
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alliance → say → relations
“The alliance’s sort of recalcitrant nature and behaviour with their approach to unions was well known ...
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nature → know → unions
So that would potentially be a factor that could hinder them from work, such as those projects,” he said.
uncertain
he → hinder → projects
The meeting lasted no more than 10 minutes, but when it was over, John Holland had accepted the union’s demands.
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Holland → last → demands
Tzimas said his role in enforcing health and safety at Gap Road ended from that moment.
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role → say → moment
On its third day of hearings, the commission heard Tzimas had earlier played a key role enforcing the two-day work stoppage at Gap Road.
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Tzimas → hear → Road
The commission has heard Tzimas was one of a small handful of officials who unlawfully occupied the Gap Road site during a crucial period of occupation, and filed a series of safety-incident reports.
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who → hear → reports
As Tzimas sat on a water-filled barrier, stubbornly enforcing the union’s two-day shutdown of the Gap Road level crossing removal project in June 2022, an email from criminal lawyer Sarah Pratt was forwarded to his inbox.
asserted
email → sit → inbox
The email concerned Jonny “Two Guns” Walker, a former Bandidos sergeant-at-arms who had just served eight years in prison for manslaughter.
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who → concern → manslaughter
Tzimas was asked to fill in the blanks on an official union letter to the Adult Parole Board, advising it that Walker would be employed by the CFMEU on night and day shifts on an as yet unnamed Melbourne construction site.
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Walker → ask → site
Tzimas, who is no longer a CFMEU official and currently not working, told the hearing he helped Walker gain work on the upgrade of the City Loop.
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Walker → work → Loop
He had never met Walker at the time he helped complete the union’s letter to the parole board, nor was he even certain Walker was a financial member, he said.
“It wasn’t uncommon to help people coming into the office, trying to get into the industry, or wanting or seeking help from the union and things like that.
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It → meet → that
So I didn’t think anything was too odd about it,” he said.
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he → think → it
The hearing also probed other connections between the Victorian construction sector, the union and organised crime, including bikies, including the use of violence and threats.
asserted
hearing → probe → violence
Tzimas was asked early in questioning if he had ever been attacked on site, and revealed that he once had his ankle fractured by men he believed to be bikies working for a developer, while his then-union colleague Ronnie Buckley suffered a broken eye socket and teeth, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.
asserted
colleague → ask → socket
The unidentified bikies who assaulted Tzimas and Buckley were working for the private developer of a site in Hawthorn where the violence occurred, Tzimas said.
asserted
Tzimas → assault → Hawthorn
Counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC, also read out to Tzimas a list of 11 names of men with confirmed or alleged bikie links, who had also worked for the union at different times, including Walker, Joel Leavitt, Muhammed Sayan, Jahmahl Pearson, Luke Moloney and others.
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who → assist → Walker
Carr asked if the union had helped these men gain roles as health and safety representatives or as union organisers, to which Tzimas agreed that it had in some cases, and that in others he could not be sure.
uncertain
he → ask → others
“One or two of those people that come to mind were already working at a particular company and existing there and had expressed an interest to be HSRs or things like that, and I believe that’s how it came about,” Tzimas said.
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Tzimas → come → that
Soon after being assaulted on site, Tzimas learned that the Hawthorn developer had engaged underworld figure turned-industrial-negotiator Mick Gatto.
asserted
developer → assault → Gatto
The hearing was told Gatto would intervene on behalf of employers in union disputes and once offered Tzimas a gold bracelet, at a meeting on a Carlton street.
asserted
Gatto → tell → street
The union official refused the gift at first, but accepted it after Gatto “expressed that, especially because I refused it, that it wasn’t his way of trying to give me anything to have sway or to earn any favour”.
asserted
it → refuse → favour
“He believed that he probably judged me a bit harshly, and this was an olive branch, so to speak, that he gives to people that he considers a friend, and he doesn’t want nothing for it.
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he → believe → it
Obviously, me initially refusing it and him clarifying that probably made me feel a little bit better.
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me → refuse → that
But I never wore it,” Tzimas said.
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Tzimas → wear → it
Tzimas, a broad shouldered man dressed in a fine woollen suit, with a long and immaculately trimmed beard, was questioned about whether the officials used threats and intimidation to coerce workers on the Gap Road site to down tools.
asserted
officials → dress → tools
An industrial relations note from the rail alliance, also tendered as evidence, documented an environment of intimidation on site.
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note → tender → site
“After prestart, CFMEU communicated to Wagstaff labour force that if they worked tonight there [sic] life would be made very difficult for them personally and Wagstaff as a business.
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life → communicate → business
Wagstaff labour communicated to RNA they did not wish to work tonight under this pressure,” it read.
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it → communicate → pressure
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
