The Bendigo sky was bright blue, and the state’s second female premier was beaming.
asserted
premier → beam → ?
Seventy-three new homes were ready to welcome their new occupants, making this a day of triumph for state and federal Labor.
“Every Victorian family deserves a safe home – Labor is delivering that in Bendigo and across Victoria,” then-premier Jacinta Allan said in her statement marking the completion of the St Andrews social housing development.
asserted
Allan → welcome → development
Victoria’s then-housing minister Harriet Shing used the event to attack the Liberals for turning “their backs on regional Victoria” while Labor delivered “thousands of new social housing homes”.
asserted
Labor → use → homes
Helping cut the ribbon for the cameras, federal member for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters, described the state and federal-funded project as evidence of “what happens when Labor governments work together”.
asserted
governments → help → evidence
But the public political plaudits delivered on that sunny Bendigo footpath told only some of the $44 million development’s story.
asserted
plaudits → deliver → story
Recently, about 30 Chinese plasterers travelled to Melbourne’s CBD to help cast light on an untold chapter of the project.
asserted
plasterers → travel → project
Dressed in their work gear, with plaster-stained hands and white dust in their hair, these workers claimed they were all ripped off by an underworld-linked venture that secured work across a raft of major projects, including the Bendigo housing venture.
asserted
that → dress → venture
These workers’ allegations lead to players from Melbourne’s gangland scene and the incurious major construction firms doing business with them.
asserted
allegations → lead → them
This story is also more than just another scandal to spill out of Victoria’s construction sector like those already being probed by the royal commission called by Allan’s replacement, Premier Ben Carroll.
asserted
story → spill → replacement
The decision of these Chinese workers to emerge from the shadows in which they typically toil reveals a deeply hidden aspect of the state’s construction underbelly – the suspected systemic exploitation of foreign workers at the bottom of the food chain.
asserted
they → emerge → chain
The men who posed for a photo near Southern Cross Station are part of a massive Chinese worker underclass forming the backbone of Victoria’s corruption-ridden plastering trade.
asserted
who → pose → trade
Their decision to speak out is exceedingly rare, but it is already stirring change in the multibillion-dollar industry and, once again, leaving the state Labor government squirming.
asserted
it → speak → government
After fielding questions from The Age, construction giant Hansen Yuncken said it had ordered an investigation into whether it missed the alleged underworld links in its supply chain and underpayment of foreign workers on the Bendigo housing site.
asserted
it → field → site
The Albanese government-appointed CFMEU administrator Michael Crosby has also promised action, attacking major contractors such as Hansen Yuncken and the ASX-listed Shape for failing to detect suspected misconduct while conceding the union has been part of the problem.
“The treatment of Chinese workers in both NSW and Victoria is a major concern to the union and is akin to slavery,” says Crosby.
asserted
Crosby → appoint → slavery
“We know that in both states, workers in plastering trades are paid cash in hand amounts of between $20 and $40 per hour – far below the applicable EBA rate.
asserted
workers → know → rate
They receive no superannuation or redundancy contributions.
asserted
They → receive → contributions
Workers’ compensation payments are not paid.
asserted
payments → pay → ?
Under the CFMEU’s plastering agreement, workers are meant to get about $60 an hour plus superannuation and other benefits, including overtime and sick pay.
asserted
workers → mean → overtime
Australian law provides that workers must get a minimum of at least about $34 an hour, as well as superannuation and other allowances.
asserted
workers → provide → 34
The 30-odd plasterers who assembled outside Southern Cross station to meet The Age say they are each owed between $5000 and $30,000, with the total amount of unpaid wages claimed to be well over $2 million.
asserted
amount → assemble → wages
Some worked on the Bendigo site, where they say they were promised up to $55 an hour cash in hand minus an accommodation charge to sleep in crowded quarters.
asserted
they → work → quarters
They claim that, in some cases, they have received less than half what they are owed.
uncertain
they → claim → what
Others worked on developments in inner-city Melbourne, or on the refurbishment of the Yarra Valley Grammar School in Ringwood.
asserted
Others → work → Ringwood
Several were anticipating working on Labor’s $94 million 94-bed expansion of the Hopkins Correctional Centre in Ararat.
asserted
Several → anticipate → Ararat
One plasterer claims he was owed $10,000 in unpaid wages, after being promised $45 an hour in cash working on large commercial projects but was never fully paid.
uncertain
he → claim → projects
In addition to their unpaid wages, the workers allege they never received superannuation, overtime or leave.
asserted
they → allege → superannuation
They say they want to keep their full names private because they are worried about getting a “visit” to their homes from unnamed parties who would prefer they stay silent.
asserted
they → say → parties
Some of these workers are also worried about authorities pursuing them for unpaid tax or breaching their visa conditions.
asserted
authorities → pursue → conditions
“We want money we are owed,” says one worker in broken English, as he provided contracts and paperwork to back up the underpayment claims.
uncertain
he → want → claims
“Life becomes very difficult [without the money I am owed].
asserted
I → become → money
Me and the boys [other workers] can’t pay [our] mortgage.”
asserted
Me → pay → mortgage
The enterprise these workers blame for exploiting them goes by two names – Multitude Plaster Commercial and, more recently, Metro Plaster.
asserted
workers → blame → names
It is partly controlled by two heavily tattooed brothers, Jake and Zach Boyer, each with their own underworld and bikie gang-links.
asserted
It → control → links
Hansen Yuncken engaged the Boyer brothers’ firm on the Bendigo housing project that Allan opened in March.
asserted
Allan → engage → March
Another major construction firm, Shape, engaged the Boyers’ plastering venture on the still-unfinished redevelopment of the RMIT university site at 235 Bourke Street.
asserted
firm → engage → Street
The Boyer boys are well known in Melbourne gangland circles for running a tattoo parlour chain and a mixed martial arts fighting competition founded by a drug trafficker now in jail, as well as for their own brushes with the law.
asserted
boys → run → law
Much less clear is how the Boyers’ plastering enterprise ended up winning contracts across the state’s construction sector despite obvious red flags that the firm may not be the ideal candidate to help build large projects, taxpayer-funded social housing or to refurbish a state prison (the Boyers’ firm has won a contract with another major builder, Kane Constructions, to provide plastering services at the Hopkins jail rebuild).
uncertain
firm → end → rebuild
Had Shape, Hansen Yuncken or Kane reviewed publicly available records or tender documents, they would have discovered the involvement of the Boyers in both Multitude Commercial and Metro Plaster.
asserted
they → review → Commercial
A Google check would have – in turn – revealed that Jake Boyer was jailed for 18 months in 2015 for his role as the getaway driver for a shotgun-armed Comanchero bikie crew that tortured and robbed a drug dealer.
asserted
that → reveal → dealer
Zack Boyer would have been outed as a man previously convicted of recklessly causing injury and, on a separate occasion, who received a 12-month adjourned undertaking after police raided his home and discovered cocaine, cannabis, human growth hormone, knuckledusters and two mobile phones.
asserted
police → out → cocaine
…and 69 more, not listed.
The Aporia
