Source : Perth Now news
A corruption-fighting barrister who shone a light on a rogue union fears alleged rampant wrongdoing in a state’s major builds will continue unabated until the government is voted out.
Geoffrey Watson has joined calls for an urgent royal commission into corruption within the Victorian government’s $109 billion Big Build program.
“That’s the only way you’re getting to the bottom of this,” said Mr Watson, the director of The Accountability Roundtable.
Organised crime and bikie gangs continue to allegedly infiltrate the state’s major infrastructure projects through the CFMEU construction union despite a two-year clean-up attempt, an investigation by The Age found.
Claims of extortion, violence and billions of dollars in bribery-inflated project costs have been made, with funds allegedly siphoned to underworld figures such as Mick Gatto.
Mr Watson believed the fresh revelations would have spurred the Labor government to respond in kind.
“Here I am just looking as though I’ve got egg on my face. I felt that they would do the right thing,” he told AAP.
Premier Jacinta Allan on Monday rejected calls from anti-corruption experts Robert Redlich and Deborah Glass for a royal commission, instead blaming inflation on the cost blowouts for the Metro Tunnel project.
“Inflationary pressures on projects is not corruption. People know the cost of building things has gone up,” she told reporters.
The premier said a royal commission would cost too much money and take too long to make any difference.
She said allegations of construction sector illegality should be referred to police.
But Mr Watson, a veteran lawyer whose damning report into the CFMEU sparked Queensland’s Commission of Inquiry into the union, said that was not enough.
“It’s very difficult to bring corruption charges to trial. It’s why they’ve been getting away with it for so long,” he said.
“The police are doing a good job, but their powers are inadequate to actually investigate and answer these sorts of really very difficult issues.”
Mr Watson expressed surprise and dismay at Ms Allan’s unyielding position.
“She’s in that denial. If she can say that, then I just don’t believe she will call a royal commission,” he said.
“Organised crime would be saying business as usual until this government goes.”
The barrister questioned the premier’s reasons for pushing back against a wave of united expert opinions.
“There is no reason why not, except a sinister reason,” he said.
“I just fear for the future.”
Ms Allan has cited a commitment to grant the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission “follow the money” investigative powers.
But that won’t be implemented until a review process is completed by the end of 2027, and after the November state election, when Labor could lose government.
