source : the age
Just jumping into the inquiry and need a refresher on the ground covered so far? Here’s a recap of the powerful probe’s work to date.
Last week: Senior inquiry staff held an unusual media conference outside a Gold Coast traffic management company they said they would be looking into over its potential links to Melbourne underworld identity Mick Gatto. (The company says it wasn’t given a heads-up about the visit, and insist everything is above board.)
Last month: The inquiry held its first (of 10) three-day public hearing blocks for the year, with evidence from a senior civil construction industry figure and the CFMEU administrators former corruption-busting barrister. There was much focus on the latter’s recent Victorian-focused report, and accusations that a former Labor minister directed his department to negotiate with the union.
Last year: Across two weeks of hearings in November and December, the inquiry heard from government-appointed CFMEU administration figures about the former leadership’s use of violence to expand their “fiefdom” into civil construction. A second hearing block delved deeper into the why, how and who, driven by two union leaders on the receiving end, or in the middle of, the building union’s alleged efforts.
And we’re back from lunch, with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland operations manager Deborah Dargan continuing her evidence.
Dargan is working through her background as a principal inspector with the office, which is laid out in a written statement tendered to the inquiry.
Things slow down now as the inquiry starts to take evidence from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland operations manager Deborah Dargan.
Junior counsel assisting the inquiry Alastair Smith takes the wheel from Wheelahan, and walks Dargan through her particulars and the nature of her role.
Dargan tells the inquiry that investigations she had undertaken and put forward for prosecution around right-of-entry law breaches stopped about the time the Palaszczuk government was elected in 2015.
Commissioner Stuart Wood asks why, to which Dargan replies that she was told by her manager the “appetite for prosecution” had dried up – but this had occurred prior to Labor changing laws to no longer require 24 hours’ notice for unions’ right of entry.
With that, the inquiry breaks for lunch. Things kick back off again at 2pm.
Wheelahan is now taking the inquiry through a submission from 14 then-current and former Workplace Health and Safety Queensland staff to a corruption watchdog report into the influencing of decision-making in the state.
The 2022 submission alleges “systemic bullying, intimidation and abuse from the CFMEU officials either directly or indirectly, and in conjunction with executive and senior management of Workplace Health and Safety Queensland who played a key role in ensuring the demands of the [union] were abided”.
It identifies Helen Burgess, along with “sidekicks” Chris Mutton and Mark Houston and senior managers in the office, as being “complicit in CFMEU misconduct”.
“Finally, it alleges at least a failure to act by Minister Grace Grace,” Wheelahan says.
All the signatories had said they were willing to give statements or be interviewed by any investigative agency, or a royal commission.
Wheelahan, going through the Crime and Corruption Commission’s response to one of this week’s witnesses, Noel Hayes, details that it would not take any action regarding the allegations against then-minister Grace.
“The CCC takes the view that the performance of the official duties of a person elected to office could not involve corrupt conduct unless the conduct would, if proved, amount to a criminal offence,” Wheelahan says, reading from the document.
“In the absence of evidence that would support a criminal offence, the CCC is unable to deal with the matter.”
On the broader allegations, the CCC told the signatories that anyone with allegations should make further statements to the agency. Commissioner Stuart Wood says it could be read “both ways” – that it was either up to the CCC, or the signatories, to take further action.
After foreshadowing in some more detail what the inquiry will hear this week from three of its proposed witnesses, senior counsel assisting Patrick Wheelahan flags an application from one to be excused – for now.
Wheelahan says David Cappelletti, a Workplace Health and Safety Queensland inspector, was due to give evidence that the culture changed in the office after the election of the Palaszczuk government and appointment of Helen Burgess in 2018.
“Workplace Health Safety Queensland went from a relaxed and effective workplace to one with a culture of bullying, intimidation and harassment of inspectors by senior managers,” Wheelahan says.
However, Wheelahan says the inquiry received a letter from Cappelletti’s GP which says he is “suffering significant anxiety and distress” and was advised not to attend.
Wheelahan says the inquiry will call the GP to give evidence this week so that Commissioner Stuart Wood can decide on the summons issued to Cappelletti to give evidence.
The outcome of this alleged regulatory capture, Wheelahan says, is the CFMEU was “treated beneficially when compared to other stakeholders” and created a “culture of fear” that if people did not do bidding of the CFMEU they would suffer “detrimental consequences”.
The inspectors were pressured by the CFMEU and management within the regulator Workplace Health Safety Queensland.
Evidence will be led that under the leadership of [WHSQ former construction compliance and field services director] Helen Burgess, the CFMEU was unduly prioritised and favoured, both in terms of health and safety notices and site access.
It will be alleged that Ms Burgess was the primary conduit between the CFMEU and Workplace Health Safety Queensland and that she had various operations managers who reported to her improperly, thereby improperly directed inspectors to deal with the CFMEU issues as a priority.
She directed inspectors to assist CFMEU officials to enter work sites in circumstances where those CFMEU officials did not have a legal right to enter.
She improperly … pressured inspectors to issue prohibition notices under the Workplace Health Safety Act where there was not a lawful basis to do so.
Wheelahan says Burgess, who is the subject of ongoing Crime and Corruption Commission investigations and the inquiry has heard was in a close personal relationship with former CFMEU state president Royce Kupsch, also “worked hand in hand with the CFMEU” from late 2018 to use a new policy as a “tool to pressure inspectors to issue infringement notices”.
Wheelahan has laid out what he says are the methods of the CFMEU to achieve its alleged regulatory capture.
This was through improper external pressure such as aggressive and intimidatory behaviour towards Workplace Health and Safety Queensland representatives.
Improper pressure was placed on frontline staff through the union’s “misuse of its position on the Work Health and Safety Board” and “inappropriate relationships with public servants”.
There were also calls for resignation of senior staff when demands were not met, and an improper role of CFMEU in selection panels for senior public servants.
We’ve got some indication now about the inquiry’s plan for this week.
Senior counsel assisting Patrick Wheelahan is giving some opening remarks and says he will be laying out a case study with the help of four former Workplace Health and Safety Queensland principal inspectors.
“The theory underpinning this case study is that there was regulatory capture of Workplace Health and Safety Queensland by the CFMEU during the period that Ms Grace Grace was the minister for industrial relations,” Wheelahan says.
“We use the term regulatory capture in this case study to mean a form of institutional corruption.
“That is, in this case, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, whose legitimate objectives are to protect the health, safety and welfare of all individuals affected … became improperly dominated by the interest of the CFMEU above others.”
This was then “weaponised by the CFMEU for its illegitimate industrial control purpose in the construction industry”, Wheelahan said.
This would add to three other case studies of regulatory capture already detailed in part before the inquiry, or still being looked into: the development and implementation of the Best Practice Industry Conditions policies, a memorandum of understanding between police and the Office of Industrial Relations, and the Queensland Building and Construction Commission.
The Crisafulli government launched the $19.7 million probe after reporting by this masthead and 60 Minutes into criminality, corruption and misconduct in the union and sector nationwide.
Due to provide a final report by July 31, the inquiry under Commissioner Stuart Wood has also faced questions of its own amid government attacks against the union and former Labor government.
Last week, however, senior counsel assisting the inquiry Patrick Wheelahan KC would not be drawn on whether the public hearing running until mid-June might push the inquiry to ask the government for an extension.
“The inquiries we have been making, and investigations, have uncovered more than we expected. So if we’re unable to complete the inquiry by July, it’s a matter for the commissioner to make an application … to the premier to seek an extension,” Wheelahan said.
Just jumping into the inquiry and need a refresher on the ground covered so far? Here’s a recap of the powerful probe’s work to date.
Last week: Senior inquiry staff held an unusual media conference outside a Gold Coast traffic management company they said they would be looking into over its potential links to Melbourne underworld identity Mick Gatto. (The company says it wasn’t given a heads-up about the visit, and insist everything is above board.)
Last month: The inquiry held its first (of 10) three-day public hearing blocks for the year, with evidence from a senior civil construction industry figure and the CFMEU administrators former corruption-busting barrister. There was much focus on the latter’s recent Victorian-focused report, and accusations that a former Labor minister directed his department to negotiate with the union.
Last year: Across two weeks of hearings in November and December, the inquiry heard from government-appointed CFMEU administration figures about the former leadership’s use of violence to expand their “fiefdom” into civil construction. A second hearing block delved deeper into the why, how and who, driven by two union leaders on the receiving end, or in the middle of, the building union’s alleged efforts.
Commissioner Stuart Wood AM KC is back in the big chair at the CFMEU inquiry for another three-day block of hearings today, after catching some rays on the Gold Coast last week.
For the first time, the inquiry will be hearing evidence from witnesses in government itself.
Four former Workplace Health and Safety Queensland principal inspectors are set to appear: David Cappelletti, Paul Watts, Noel Hayes, and Deborah Dargon (currently operations manager).
It’s unclear what exactly the four are being called for. But the inquiry has previously heard about a flawed agreement between police and the state’s industrial relations office – first reported by this masthead – and links between the office and the union.
This link, in the form of a “close personal relationship” between the former construction compliance and field services director Helen Burgess and the CFMEU’s former president, Royce Kupsch, saw the pair wield power to order inspectors around, the inquiry has heard.
