source : the age
The chief executive of a major building company behind some of the biggest government projects in Australia has had his Sydney home firebombed in the latest arson attack to target figures in the nation’s construction industry.
Emergency services were called to George Bardas’ home in Putney in the early hours of Thursday following reports a white SUV was on fire in the driveway.
Fire and Rescue NSW attended and extinguished the blaze and the occupants of the home were evacuated as a precaution.
No one was injured.
“Police have established a crime scene, and an investigation into the cause of the fire has commenced,” NSW Police said in a statement on Thursday.
“Initial inquiries indicate the blaze is suspicious.”
Bardas is chief executive of Hansen Yuncken, one of the country’s biggest building companies with projects including hospitals, prisons, police stations and university campuses.
Video was posted online and circulated through an independent media channel focused on Sydney’s underworld, SCN WorldStar, showing the arsonists smashing the window of a white car in the driveway and pouring a red Jerry can full of fuel in the entryway to the home.
The assailants light the accelerant and run, calling out “F— you George!”
Text overlaid on the video says it was a “message to George Bardas and any other builders that want to play dirty.
“Stay out of our game and we’ll stay out of yours.
“Continue to test the waters and you’ll face repercussions.”
There is no suggestion Bardas is involved in any wrongdoing, only that he is a victim of crime.
The firebombing replicates arson attacks in Victoria that have also targeted high-profile and senior directors of major building companies.
Last year, this masthead revealed three terrifying attacks at the homes of construction company directors while their families were inside.
In contrast to this NSW firebombing attack, state police in Victoria have established a dedicated taskforce, Hawk, to probe the fires and other organised crime activity in the construction industry.
The NSW police have resisted establishing a taskforce similar to Hawk, despite multiple incidents across the state.
In February, this masthead revealed how Sydney crime figures were suspected of being behind an audacious bribe plot allegedly aimed at silencing a victim of an ongoing NSW construction industry standover racket linked to major state and federal government sites.
According to the claims reported to detectives, the victim was offered $50,000 cash in an envelope in return for retracting allegations that NSW construction industry figures were responsible for a months-long effort to intimidate and target families of construction workers.
That effort included the 2025 firebombing outside a CFMEU organiser’s Sydney home. In that attack, the organiser’s car was set ablaze.
The persistent firebombings across the nation’s construction sector also raise questions about the adequacy of the Albanese government’s industry clean-up, which led to the CFMEU being placed into administration in 2024 over allegations it had been infiltrated by organised crime.
Since it was launched in March 2025, Victoria Police’s Taskforce Hawk has resulted in multiple arrests of organised crime figures, ex-union officials and company owners suspected of corrupting the building industry. It is also proactively targeting building industry figures suspected of wrongdoing.
In NSW, state and federal authorities have launched no taskforce nor funded any significant police-led building industry counter-organised crime effort despite repeated calls for action from CFMEU administrator Mark Irving, KC.
The nation’s union and employer body watchdog, the Fair Work Commission, has also previously urged law enforcement agencies to increase their focus on crime and corruption across Australia’s building sector.
As of Friday, the firebombing of Bardas’ home remained with Ryde police and investigations continue.
HY’s long list of projects include government health infrastructure worth hundreds of millions of dollars – Westmead, Lismore, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga hospital redevelopments in NSW; Cairns, Macksville, Hervey Bay medical facilities in Queensland; and Echuca and Kew hospitals in Victoria.
The Department of Defence has similarly enlisted HY to work on military bases including Puckapunyal in Queensland, the ACS shipyard in South Australia and HMAS Penguin and Creswell in NSW.
Prisons in NSW and Tasmania, and courts in South Australia are all featured on HY’s website.
HY has been contacted for comment.
The attack comes after a Queensland inquiry into the building industry heard on Wednesday that former Labor minister Grace Grace threatened to axe a $1.6 billion contract on the federally-backed Toowoomba Bypass if the global companies building it did not do a deal with the CFMEU.
Former Acciona project director Jose Sanchez said he believed the Queensland government’s actions were similar to what he would expect in a Third World country such as Nigeria.
Premier David Crisafulli said the claims were a “new low” that amounted to “Third World thuggery”.
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Nick McKenzie is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email.
