Latest news with #BuildingBad
The Age
12 hours ago
- The Age
‘Got to stand your ground': Ex-bikie blasts former CFMEU bosses
When feared ex-bikie enforcer Jonny 'Two Guns' Walker discovered himself suddenly persona non grata among the union bosses he once called 'brother', one word sprang to mind. Betrayal. The way the convicted criminal and champion boxer saw it, CFMEU chiefs previously eager to bestow the union's industrial might on hard gangland types like him were now sacrificing them to save their own skins. Adding insult to injury was the posturing of outgoing union bosses like John Setka, who posted photos getting a bikie-style tattoo around his neck after abandoning his post as Victorian secretary. Setka quit on the eve of the Building Bad investigation breaking – which exposed underworld infiltration of the union – hoping his departure would suppress the scandal. 'I would say he's try-hard,' Walker says of Setka. 'The tattoo's probably a bit much, isn't it? When you're stepping away? It's like leaving a biker club and getting a tattoo on the next day. Doesn't make much sense.' If Setka hoped to rule from afar while working on as industry consultant, he failed miserably. His acolytes in the CFMEU's executive ranks were sacked around the country and the union plunged into administration. Walker's beef is with the way these now ex-union bosses turned on men like him. Having placed Walker, alongside other former and serving bikie bosses, in positions of union power and influence on the biggest commercial construction and Allan government projects in Victoria, he says they were owed a measure of support. 'Obviously, the pressure got too much,' says Walker. 'End of the day, we shouldn't be pushed over because the government thinks I shouldn't be on a Big Build job. It was just a witch hunt … to break down a powerful union.' Walker, who was jailed for manslaughter over a fatal bashing in a bikie clubhouse, derides these now ex-union bosses as plastic gangsters. 'Do they think they're gangsters? Maybe at home after they've watched The Godfather or something a couple of times,' he says. Where Walker and some of the exiled union bosses may agree is the insistence that men of his ilk can rightly work as CFMEU health and safety representatives or organisers. Walker insists that after serving his eight years' jail — for his role in a bashing that began over a dispute over a dog called 'Trouble' — and severing ties with the Bandidos, for whom he served as club enforcer or sergeant-at-arms, his background as a tradesman and passion for unionism and upholding building industry safety made him an ideal CFMEU workplace health delegate. 'I understand people can raise eyebrows, but my knowledge of the construction site was much more than just bashing someone to death in the clubhouse,' he says. Loading 'I was never hired because I was an ex-Bandido. I was never hired because I was an ex-boxer. I was hired off a resume as a fitter and turner by trade. 'I'd worked since I was 14 to 30 years old, ended up in trouble, ended up in jail. But the truth is, I'd done all my courses, OH&S courses.' It's true Walker can be charming when he tries. He stresses he's now a family man who cares for his teenage son and the two young children of his new partner, Jess. Workers and bosses on the Big Build Hurstbridge Rail Upgrade project where Walker worked as a union delegate also say he never threatened them with violence or asked for a bribe. And yet if Walker is anything, it's scary. It's not just his past or unflinching disposition. He oozes menace. His Two Guns nickname comes from his boxing career where he has fought more than 100 rounds. Before his exclusive interview with this masthead and 60 Minutes, Walker had repeatedly taken to social media to call this reporter a 'dog'. When Walker was identified on national television as one of a host of ex and serving bikies, including Bandidos, Rebels, Mongols, and Hells Angels, who had been parachuted by the CFMEU into powerful well-paid delegate roles, he posted an Instagram threat of violence directed towards me. In the interview, Walker insisted this was justified because the public scrutiny was unjust – especially claims by the CFMEU administration's chief investigator, Geoffrey Watson, SC, that Walker, and other ex and serving bikies, were recruited by union bosses as muscle and as tools for warring CFMEU factions. 'You got on national TV with Geoffrey Watson, ran my name into the mud,' he said. 'So I run my life a little bit like a union. I stand up for what's right, so anyone gets on TV and you know, puts me down. You know what I mean? That's, at the time, that's how I felt.' Pushed about whether his criminal record of extreme violence should have ruled him out as a union health and safety representative on a government project, Walker responds: 'Well, if you were a boss, would you do things unsafe if I come told you not to?' Loading Asked about whether it was appropriate for a violent and erratic criminal linked to the Rebels to be given a job on the Big Build (this particular bikie figure got his job because his uncle held a senior union position), Walker says: 'Well, that bloke there worked alongside me and he was damn good. He's done his job to exactly how he had to do it.' Walker was, by all accounts (this masthead spoke to eight Hurstbridge project workers about Walker on the condition of anonymity) the nicest of a three-man roving CFMEU delegate team on the project. If Walker is reformed, his other two health and safety representatives are not. Before they, too, were sacked, one was juggling his union duties with his role as a bikie-gang affiliated standover man accused of threatening subcontractors and others with violence. The third CFMEU delegate on the Hurstbridge Line Project was pushed out of the union for allegedly bashing a fellow union delegate with a metal pipe. Walker will not say an ill word about these two former comrades. Asked about the alleged bashing, Walker points out it did not happen on a work site, before querying whether it happened at all (the assault is allegedly caught on CCTV). Pressed about whether violence should be condemned wherever it occurs, Walker offers this: 'Well, if someone breaks into my house, they're gonna get, they're gonna get a rude awakening, aren't they?' Loading In contrast with Watson, Walker sees no pattern in the influx of bikie gang-linked figures into the union. Instead, he sees hard men with an ability to hold unreasonable bosses to account and protect workers. 'You don't need an ex-biker or an ex-boxer there. You need a man that's gonna stand on his own two feet and know right from wrong,' he says. Walker stands largely alone in his defence of ex-gangland figures being appointed as union delegates. Even his strongest supporters in the union privately say that while Walker may well be genuinely committed to reform, and also made strides in promoting a program for young offenders on the Big Build, the union ultimately set him up to fail by giving him a job as a health and safety delegate. 'They should have put him on the tools for a few years. Maybe then you look at a delegate's role,' says one experienced union insider. 'But the [now sacked union] bosses didn't want Walker and the other boys [ex-bikies] as genuine delegates. They wanted to build crews of tough guys for their own powerbases and no one thought about what would happen if anyone started asking questions.' What happened next is now part of Australian industrial and political history, albeit one that is still being written. Walker was not only forced off the Big Build but then from a non-union role secured for him by the Australian Workers Union on a major wind farm project. The construction industry is undergoing once-in-a-generation reform. The state government last year introduced laws it said would prevent bikies from working on its sites. Federal and state police are investigating organised crime links to the CFMEU and wider building sector, but it's unclear if authorities have the capacity to confront the problems, as highlighted by a spate of recent unsolved firebombings. The union's administrator, Mark Irving, is attempting to rebuild a new corruption-free industrial force, but it's slow work that is being constantly undermined by forces inside and out of the CFMEU. While Setka and his senior union cronies are gone from their jobs, they are still wielding influence from the sidelines. This masthead and 60 Minutes has confirmed that several influential union organisers who played a role in recruiting bikies still work for Irving. They include Paul Tzimas, a previous promoter of certain Mongols bikie heavies. Tzimas didn't comment when contacted and it's unclear if he was merely following orders from others when he pushed bikie gang-linked figures onto companies. If Walker remains a lone public voice defending the appointment of men like him to union delegate roles, he is one of many, from the premier down, now denouncing the conduct of the ex-union chiefs who put them there in the first place. These critics may not agree on much, save for the view that whatever political and factional machinations were at play, it was the self-interest and ego of ex-CFMEU leaders that poisoned a once proud and powerful union. 'I think they betrayed themself,' Walker says. 'They were definitely more worried about themselves than us.'
Sydney Morning Herald
12 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Got to stand your ground': Ex-bikie blasts former CFMEU bosses
When feared ex-bikie enforcer Jonny 'Two Guns' Walker discovered himself suddenly persona non grata among the union bosses he once called 'brother', one word sprang to mind. Betrayal. The way the convicted criminal and champion boxer saw it, CFMEU chiefs previously eager to bestow the union's industrial might on hard gangland types like him were now sacrificing them to save their own skins. Adding insult to injury was the posturing of outgoing union bosses like John Setka, who posted photos getting a bikie-style tattoo around his neck after abandoning his post as Victorian secretary. Setka quit on the eve of the Building Bad investigation breaking – which exposed underworld infiltration of the union – hoping his departure would suppress the scandal. 'I would say he's try-hard,' Walker says of Setka. 'The tattoo's probably a bit much, isn't it? When you're stepping away? It's like leaving a biker club and getting a tattoo on the next day. Doesn't make much sense.' If Setka hoped to rule from afar while working on as industry consultant, he failed miserably. His acolytes in the CFMEU's executive ranks were sacked around the country and the union plunged into administration. Walker's beef is with the way these now ex-union bosses turned on men like him. Having placed Walker, alongside other former and serving bikie bosses, in positions of union power and influence on the biggest commercial construction and Allan government projects in Victoria, he says they were owed a measure of support. 'Obviously, the pressure got too much,' says Walker. 'End of the day, we shouldn't be pushed over because the government thinks I shouldn't be on a Big Build job. It was just a witch hunt … to break down a powerful union.' Walker, who was jailed for manslaughter over a fatal bashing in a bikie clubhouse, derides these now ex-union bosses as plastic gangsters. 'Do they think they're gangsters? Maybe at home after they've watched The Godfather or something a couple of times,' he says. Where Walker and some of the exiled union bosses may agree is the insistence that men of his ilk can rightly work as CFMEU health and safety representatives or organisers. Walker insists that after serving his eight years' jail — for his role in a bashing that began over a dispute over a dog called 'Trouble' — and severing ties with the Bandidos, for whom he served as club enforcer or sergeant-at-arms, his background as a tradesman and passion for unionism and upholding building industry safety made him an ideal CFMEU workplace health delegate. 'I understand people can raise eyebrows, but my knowledge of the construction site was much more than just bashing someone to death in the clubhouse,' he says. Loading 'I was never hired because I was an ex-Bandido. I was never hired because I was an ex-boxer. I was hired off a resume as a fitter and turner by trade. 'I'd worked since I was 14 to 30 years old, ended up in trouble, ended up in jail. But the truth is, I'd done all my courses, OH&S courses.' It's true Walker can be charming when he tries. He stresses he's now a family man who cares for his teenage son and the two young children of his new partner, Jess. Workers and bosses on the Big Build Hurstbridge Rail Upgrade project where Walker worked as a union delegate also say he never threatened them with violence or asked for a bribe. And yet if Walker is anything, it's scary. It's not just his past or unflinching disposition. He oozes menace. His Two Guns nickname comes from his boxing career where he has fought more than 100 rounds. Before his exclusive interview with this masthead and 60 Minutes, Walker had repeatedly taken to social media to call this reporter a 'dog'. When Walker was identified on national television as one of a host of ex and serving bikies, including Bandidos, Rebels, Mongols, and Hells Angels, who had been parachuted by the CFMEU into powerful well-paid delegate roles, he posted an Instagram threat of violence directed towards me. In the interview, Walker insisted this was justified because the public scrutiny was unjust – especially claims by the CFMEU administration's chief investigator, Geoffrey Watson, SC, that Walker, and other ex and serving bikies, were recruited by union bosses as muscle and as tools for warring CFMEU factions. 'You got on national TV with Geoffrey Watson, ran my name into the mud,' he said. 'So I run my life a little bit like a union. I stand up for what's right, so anyone gets on TV and you know, puts me down. You know what I mean? That's, at the time, that's how I felt.' Pushed about whether his criminal record of extreme violence should have ruled him out as a union health and safety representative on a government project, Walker responds: 'Well, if you were a boss, would you do things unsafe if I come told you not to?' Loading Asked about whether it was appropriate for a violent and erratic criminal linked to the Rebels to be given a job on the Big Build (this particular bikie figure got his job because his uncle held a senior union position), Walker says: 'Well, that bloke there worked alongside me and he was damn good. He's done his job to exactly how he had to do it.' Walker was, by all accounts (this masthead spoke to eight Hurstbridge project workers about Walker on the condition of anonymity) the nicest of a three-man roving CFMEU delegate team on the project. If Walker is reformed, his other two health and safety representatives are not. Before they, too, were sacked, one was juggling his union duties with his role as a bikie-gang affiliated standover man accused of threatening subcontractors and others with violence. The third CFMEU delegate on the Hurstbridge Line Project was pushed out of the union for allegedly bashing a fellow union delegate with a metal pipe. Walker will not say an ill word about these two former comrades. Asked about the alleged bashing, Walker points out it did not happen on a work site, before querying whether it happened at all (the assault is allegedly caught on CCTV). Pressed about whether violence should be condemned wherever it occurs, Walker offers this: 'Well, if someone breaks into my house, they're gonna get, they're gonna get a rude awakening, aren't they?' Loading In contrast with Watson, Walker sees no pattern in the influx of bikie gang-linked figures into the union. Instead, he sees hard men with an ability to hold unreasonable bosses to account and protect workers. 'You don't need an ex-biker or an ex-boxer there. You need a man that's gonna stand on his own two feet and know right from wrong,' he says. Walker stands largely alone in his defence of ex-gangland figures being appointed as union delegates. Even his strongest supporters in the union privately say that while Walker may well be genuinely committed to reform, and also made strides in promoting a program for young offenders on the Big Build, the union ultimately set him up to fail by giving him a job as a health and safety delegate. 'They should have put him on the tools for a few years. Maybe then you look at a delegate's role,' says one experienced union insider. 'But the [now sacked union] bosses didn't want Walker and the other boys [ex-bikies] as genuine delegates. They wanted to build crews of tough guys for their own powerbases and no one thought about what would happen if anyone started asking questions.' What happened next is now part of Australian industrial and political history, albeit one that is still being written. Walker was not only forced off the Big Build but then from a non-union role secured for him by the Australian Workers Union on a major wind farm project. The construction industry is undergoing once-in-a-generation reform. The state government last year introduced laws it said would prevent bikies from working on its sites. Federal and state police are investigating organised crime links to the CFMEU and wider building sector, but it's unclear if authorities have the capacity to confront the problems, as highlighted by a spate of recent unsolved firebombings. The union's administrator, Mark Irving, is attempting to rebuild a new corruption-free industrial force, but it's slow work that is being constantly undermined by forces inside and out of the CFMEU. While Setka and his senior union cronies are gone from their jobs, they are still wielding influence from the sidelines. This masthead and 60 Minutes has confirmed that several influential union organisers who played a role in recruiting bikies still work for Irving. They include Paul Tzimas, a previous promoter of certain Mongols bikie heavies. Tzimas didn't comment when contacted and it's unclear if he was merely following orders from others when he pushed bikie gang-linked figures onto companies. If Walker remains a lone public voice defending the appointment of men like him to union delegate roles, he is one of many, from the premier down, now denouncing the conduct of the ex-union chiefs who put them there in the first place. These critics may not agree on much, save for the view that whatever political and factional machinations were at play, it was the self-interest and ego of ex-CFMEU leaders that poisoned a once proud and powerful union. 'I think they betrayed themself,' Walker says. 'They were definitely more worried about themselves than us.'
The Age
4 days ago
- Business
- The Age
‘Let's make some money together': Inside the CFMEU's bribery scandal
Sometimes it was a foot tap, others a little kick under the table, but always there was a signal. A few seconds later, the CFMEU official would drop a hand down to accept $5000 in rolled-up $100 notes. The now-ousted CFMEU NSW leader Darren Greenfield and his son, branch deputy Michael, repeated this ritual six times over three years, collecting literal under-the-table payments and even the occasional envelope stuffed with cash at union offices or their home. After four years of hiding behind public denials and a cover story of a union 'stitch-up', the CFMEU leaders confessed last month to taking $30,000 in bribes from a Chinese gyprocker in return for access to major building projects and promises to remove competitors from work sites. An agreed statement of facts released this week by the District Court of NSW, despite the Greenfields' opposition, provides new and damning details into how the bribes were paid, what they were for and how the union leaders brazenly wielded their power on some of the state's biggest projects. It is a spectacular fall, particularly for Greenfield Sr, who had verbally attacked union leaders such as the ACTU's Sally McManus for questioning his integrity. The record of bribes confirms that corruption infected the highest levels of the CFMEU for years. Its release comes after the Albanese government forced the broader construction union into administration last year over reports of underworld infiltration in this masthead's Building Bad investigation with 60 Minutes and The Australian Financial Review. Supporters of the CFMEU's former leadership have also backed a High Court challenge to that administration which has hampered the administration's efforts to clean up the union. This masthead can reveal that the behaviour exposed in the Greenfields' court case, which saw the pair admit the cash they received was for no legitimate purpose, was likely to be the tip of the iceberg. Two law enforcement officials with deep knowledge of the police probe into the Greenfields, speaking anonymously to discuss confidential information, said that investigators uncovered evidence suggesting the father and son received improper benefits from another major developer in return for keeping the CFMEU away from its sites. It was while police investigated this suspected corruption – which never led to any charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence to support a criminal brief – that they uncovered the Greenfields' pocketing of cash bribes from another company. A sentencing decision for the gyprocker, 'Chen', whose real name cannot be published for legal reasons, revealed his payments also extended beyond the CFMEU's top echelons and to an unnamed CFMEU employee who received $1000 worth of David Jones gift cards and $5000 cash payments, rolled up inside a paper copy of a CFMEU enterprise agreement. The gyprocker himself pleaded guilty to bribing the CFMEU in 2022 and was sentenced to 2½ years' prison, served by an intensive corrections order. He later told police, 'I paid Darren Greenfield because he helped us do things'. 'People don't help you for nothing,' he said. 'This payment was on top of membership fees and other donations to the union. I believed by paying them something I would get something. The something was jobs and other help with other issues.' Loading Chen told the judge he felt he was 'unable to survive in the industry without engaging in bribery with union officials'. At one point, according to secret police surveillance detailed in the agreed facts, Chen offered Darren Greenfield payments worth tens of thousands of dollars. 'Let's make some money together,' Chen said at a meeting at the union's offices. His translator relayed the offer as 'if you can help him get on big project, he can put $100k … $50ks'. 'No dramas,' Darren responded. 'Let's see what we can do.' The relationship between Chen and then-assistant secretary Darren Greenfield began in 2017 when Chen's company secured a prized CFMEU enterprise agreement – viewed as key to getting onto big building projects. As the deal was negotiated, Darren asked Chen to do renovation work on his home. The day after the CFMEU signed off on the agreement, Chen ordered building materials to be delivered to Darren's home. He instructed his employees to install new plasterboard and complete finishing work to the walls at the house. He organised for the interior to be painted. The work, valued between $6000 and $7000, was done for free. Just one month before, CFMEU NSW president Rita Mallia had emailed Darren to advise him that the Coalition's Corrupting Benefits Bill – the same law he would later be charged under – had commenced. By 2018, Darren was made state secretary of the CFMEU. For three months Chen pursued Darren to push Decode Construction Design, a non-union company expected to engage Chen's firm, over a major project at Olympic Park. Chen left two bottles of wine for Darren at his house – 'not too expensive', Chen later told police, 'a little bit over a $100' – and slipped an envelope with $5000 cash into Darren's pocket. 'The $5000 was not for any legitimate business purpose, and no receipt was issued,' Darren admitted. He made no attempt to return it. In December that year, Chen discovered he had lost a job to a cheaper competitor. An employee advised him: 'I think you should go to the union and put that company to death.' At a meeting inside his CFMEU office, Darren assured Chen that he would meet with the builder responsible, Parkview, over projects Chen had lost. 'I can stop it,' he promised. 'If it's $1.8 million different [in the competitor's cost] I can tell him he can get f---ed. I'll tell him he is not going to sign it.' As they talked, Chen took out $5000 in cash, concealed from his interpreter. He gave Greenfield a 'little kick' on the leg and passed him the money under the table. Shortly before, Chen had also found a way to win favour with Michael Greenfield, who Darren had made second-in-charge of the union. Michael had been panicking as his CFMEU vehicle had been photographed going through a red light and he couldn't afford to lose more points off his licence. Accompanied by his father, he asked a CFMEU employee if they knew anyone that 'can fill out a stat dec and pretend they were driving the vehicle'. After a meeting at McDonald's, Chen sent the union a visa worker's statutory declaration taking the rap for the offence. Michael signed what he later admitted was a false declaration nominating the worker as the driver. By January 2019, Chen wanted to make sure that Michael – as the official in charge of CBD projects – was taken care of. It would be the first time Michael received cash bribes from Chen. 'You have to give something to him for sure,' Chen told his business partner. 'Otherwise he has done so much for you that he won't feel good.' Loading His partner agreed. It was good to have 'sorted' the union. 'Now that you are in, they won't make trouble for you.' Chen bragged that with this bribe they had 'nailed' the union leaders. 'The biggest union bosses are all in the palm of our hands.' Meeting at the CFMEU offices, Michael promised Chen he would put pressure on Parkview by 'giv[ing] him a bit of a kick there' and that if the builder had signed up a non-EBA company, 'we'll be on that job next week, kicking the f--- out of them'. He recommended developers to help Chen get work and said he would raise a $200,000 debt owed to their company with his father. When Michael and Chen were left alone, Chen removed $5000 in cash and handed it to Michael under the table. Chen also didn't forget an unnamed CFMEU employee who had assisted him, handing him 10 David Jones gift cards worth $1000 after the meeting, according to his sentencing decision. Loading Four months later, as Labor was tipped to win the federal election, Chen delivered a $3200 cheque to the CFMEU offices for a union charity dinner table. He took the opportunity to personally attend to the branch's most senior leaders. In his union office, Darren assured Chen he would get him work with builders and developers including Hutchinson and Parkview – the latter of which had not given Chen's company two jobs despite indicating it would. 'I have already warned him [Parkview's project manager],' Darren said. 'If you make an agreement going forward, you don't stick to it – we don't help you any more. It's over. Our relationship with him is finished.' Darren said he had stopped a job at Parkview when the builder used one of Chen's competitors, and the project manager would 'not give them another job'. He also explained that Labor's potential win that weekend's federal election would increase his power over builders and developers. '[The election] is very important,' Darren said. 'Need this government to go … Much easier if they're gone and Labor comes in. Much easier … don't have to butt heads with the builders all the time. They do what you say.' In the meantime, Darren boasted how he would exploit his ties with billion-dollar CFMEU industry fund Cbus to influence who got work on the fund's mega projects, such as its $500 million apartment development in Epping with Hutchinson Builders. 'What happens is Cbus comes to me, and I am in to Cbus every two weeks,' he said. 'They have a list for say … formwork, gyprock, steel fixing, scaffold. They have three names there, four names here, three names here and they'll say to me 'which one's good?' … and I'll just tick it for him … and they say to Hutchinson 'that's who you are going to use'.' A Cbus Property spokesman previously said that its contractors were independent and 'subcontractors on all sites are appointed by the contractor, not Cbus Property'. Hutchinson did not return requests for comment. As they talked, Chen pulled out $5000 cash, rolled up with an elastic band, and reached under the table towards Darren's leg while tapping the official's foot. Darren shifted his hand under to take the money and placed the roll on his thigh, concealing it with his hand. A Parkview director did not return requests for comment before publication. But this time, a secret camera installed by police in Darren's office had recorded the handover. With Darren's bribe sorted, Chen paid a visit to the son. In Michael's office, Chen again removed $5000 cash from his pocket, tapped the union official to get his attention and gave him the cash under the table. 'Thank you,' Michael said, as he took the money. Later, Chen would tell his business partner that 'Loa Da' [Darren Greenfield] has told him 'no worries, the Epping job is definitely yours, you don't have to worry about it'. 'Once the Labor Party is in power, the union will be king again,' Chen said. Loading Three days later, Labor lost in a shock upset. Chen went back to CFMEU headquarters to complain to an unnamed employee that Darren had cancelled a meeting with him and his company had lost a major tender. Asking his interpreter to leave, he gave the CFMEU employee a $5000 roll of cash. Later that day, Parkview messaged Chen congratulating him on winning work on its $400 million construction project at Granville. In February 2020, as Chen looked to renew his CFMEU enterprise agreement, he met the same CFMEU employee at a Pyrmont cafe to discuss the deal and tenders for two Parkview projects. At the end of the meeting, as the pair walked back to Chen's car, Chen took a copy of the CFMEU enterprise agreement from the union employee, placed a bundle of banknotes totalling $5000 within the document, rolled it up and handed it back to the employee. By June, Chen was out of work and his competitors were winning jobs over him. Darren promised him a list of CFMEU-backed builders and said: 'If you have problems to get in the door, to tender, let me know.' When Chen flagged he would text message the jobs he was tendering for, the union boss cautioned him 'don't say anything, just the name … that's all I need to know'. Again, Darren took $5000 from Chen under the table, this time wedging it under his thigh to conceal it from the interpreter. Surveillance caught him placing the cash in his top desk drawer and covering it with a blue cloth. Darren admitted in the statement of facts that the money was to push Chen's company for jobs around Sydney 'which would not legitimately be due to Chen'. Police raided the CFMEU offices in November that year. They would find no receipt for the six payments. Five years later Darren would admit 'dishonestly' taking payments. But in a conversation recorded by police the next day, Michael asked his father 'what are we going to tell the boys? How much do you tell them?' 'Just tell them there is a stitch-up going on,' Darren said. The Greenfields will next face court for sentencing in November.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Let's make some money together': Inside the CFMEU's bribery scandal
Sometimes it was a foot tap, others a little kick under the table, but always there was a signal. A few seconds later, the CFMEU official would drop a hand down to accept $5000 in rolled-up $100 notes. The now-ousted CFMEU NSW leader Darren Greenfield and his son, branch deputy Michael, repeated this ritual six times over three years, collecting literal under-the-table payments and even the occasional envelope stuffed with cash at union offices or their home. After four years of hiding behind public denials and a cover story of a union 'stitch-up', the CFMEU leaders confessed last month to taking $30,000 in bribes from a Chinese gyprocker in return for access to major building projects and promises to remove competitors from work sites. An agreed statement of facts released this week by the District Court of NSW, despite the Greenfields' opposition, provides new and damning details into how the bribes were paid, what they were for and how the union leaders brazenly wielded their power on some of the state's biggest projects. It is a spectacular fall, particularly for Greenfield Sr, who had verbally attacked union leaders such as the ACTU's Sally McManus for questioning his integrity. The record of bribes confirms that corruption infected the highest levels of the CFMEU for years. Its release comes after the Albanese government forced the broader construction union into administration last year over reports of underworld infiltration in this masthead's Building Bad investigation with 60 Minutes and The Australian Financial Review. Supporters of the CFMEU's former leadership have also backed a High Court challenge to that administration which has hampered the administration's efforts to clean up the union. This masthead can reveal that the behaviour exposed in the Greenfields' court case, which saw the pair admit the cash they received was for no legitimate purpose, was likely to be the tip of the iceberg. Two law enforcement officials with deep knowledge of the police probe into the Greenfields, speaking anonymously to discuss confidential information, said that investigators uncovered evidence suggesting the father and son received improper benefits from another major developer in return for keeping the CFMEU away from its sites. It was while police investigated this suspected corruption – which never led to any charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence to support a criminal brief – that they uncovered the Greenfields' pocketing of cash bribes from another company. A sentencing decision for the gyprocker, 'Chen', whose real name cannot be published for legal reasons, revealed his payments also extended beyond the CFMEU's top echelons and to an unnamed CFMEU employee who received $1000 worth of David Jones gift cards and $5000 cash payments, rolled up inside a paper copy of a CFMEU enterprise agreement. The gyprocker himself pleaded guilty to bribing the CFMEU in 2022 and was sentenced to 2½ years' prison, served by an intensive corrections order. He later told police, 'I paid Darren Greenfield because he helped us do things'. 'People don't help you for nothing,' he said. 'This payment was on top of membership fees and other donations to the union. I believed by paying them something I would get something. The something was jobs and other help with other issues.' Loading Chen told the judge he felt he was 'unable to survive in the industry without engaging in bribery with union officials'. At one point, according to secret police surveillance detailed in the agreed facts, Chen offered Darren Greenfield payments worth tens of thousands of dollars. 'Let's make some money together,' Chen said at a meeting at the union's offices. His translator relayed the offer as 'if you can help him get on big project, he can put $100k … $50ks'. 'No dramas,' Darren responded. 'Let's see what we can do.' The relationship between Chen and then-assistant secretary Darren Greenfield began in 2017 when Chen's company secured a prized CFMEU enterprise agreement – viewed as key to getting onto big building projects. As the deal was negotiated, Darren asked Chen to do renovation work on his home. The day after the CFMEU signed off on the agreement, Chen ordered building materials to be delivered to Darren's home. He instructed his employees to install new plasterboard and complete finishing work to the walls at the house. He organised for the interior to be painted. The work, valued between $6000 and $7000, was done for free. Just one month before, CFMEU NSW president Rita Mallia had emailed Darren to advise him that the Coalition's Corrupting Benefits Bill – the same law he would later be charged under – had commenced. By 2018, Darren was made state secretary of the CFMEU. For three months Chen pursued Darren to push Decode Construction Design, a non-union company expected to engage Chen's firm, over a major project at Olympic Park. Chen left two bottles of wine for Darren at his house – 'not too expensive', Chen later told police, 'a little bit over a $100' – and slipped an envelope with $5000 cash into Darren's pocket. 'The $5000 was not for any legitimate business purpose, and no receipt was issued,' Darren admitted. He made no attempt to return it. In December that year, Chen discovered he had lost a job to a cheaper competitor. An employee advised him: 'I think you should go to the union and put that company to death.' At a meeting inside his CFMEU office, Darren assured Chen that he would meet with the builder responsible, Parkview, over projects Chen had lost. 'I can stop it,' he promised. 'If it's $1.8 million different [in the competitor's cost] I can tell him he can get f---ed. I'll tell him he is not going to sign it.' As they talked, Chen took out $5000 in cash, concealed from his interpreter. He gave Greenfield a 'little kick' on the leg and passed him the money under the table. Shortly before, Chen had also found a way to win favour with Michael Greenfield, who Darren had made second-in-charge of the union. Michael had been panicking as his CFMEU vehicle had been photographed going through a red light and he couldn't afford to lose more points off his licence. Accompanied by his father, he asked a CFMEU employee if they knew anyone that 'can fill out a stat dec and pretend they were driving the vehicle'. After a meeting at McDonald's, Chen sent the union a visa worker's statutory declaration taking the rap for the offence. Michael signed what he later admitted was a false declaration nominating the worker as the driver. By January 2019, Chen wanted to make sure that Michael – as the official in charge of CBD projects – was taken care of. It would be the first time Michael received cash bribes from Chen. 'You have to give something to him for sure,' Chen told his business partner. 'Otherwise he has done so much for you that he won't feel good.' Loading His partner agreed. It was good to have 'sorted' the union. 'Now that you are in, they won't make trouble for you.' Chen bragged that with this bribe they had 'nailed' the union leaders. 'The biggest union bosses are all in the palm of our hands.' Meeting at the CFMEU offices, Michael promised Chen he would put pressure on Parkview by 'giv[ing] him a bit of a kick there' and that if the builder had signed up a non-EBA company, 'we'll be on that job next week, kicking the f--- out of them'. He recommended developers to help Chen get work and said he would raise a $200,000 debt owed to their company with his father. When Michael and Chen were left alone, Chen removed $5000 in cash and handed it to Michael under the table. Chen also didn't forget an unnamed CFMEU employee who had assisted him, handing him 10 David Jones gift cards worth $1000 after the meeting, according to his sentencing decision. Loading Four months later, as Labor was tipped to win the federal election, Chen delivered a $3200 cheque to the CFMEU offices for a union charity dinner table. He took the opportunity to personally attend to the branch's most senior leaders. In his union office, Darren assured Chen he would get him work with builders and developers including Hutchinson and Parkview – the latter of which had not given Chen's company two jobs despite indicating it would. 'I have already warned him [Parkview's project manager],' Darren said. 'If you make an agreement going forward, you don't stick to it – we don't help you any more. It's over. Our relationship with him is finished.' Darren said he had stopped a job at Parkview when the builder used one of Chen's competitors, and the project manager would 'not give them another job'. He also explained that Labor's potential win that weekend's federal election would increase his power over builders and developers. '[The election] is very important,' Darren said. 'Need this government to go … Much easier if they're gone and Labor comes in. Much easier … don't have to butt heads with the builders all the time. They do what you say.' In the meantime, Darren boasted how he would exploit his ties with billion-dollar CFMEU industry fund Cbus to influence who got work on the fund's mega projects, such as its $500 million apartment development in Epping with Hutchinson Builders. 'What happens is Cbus comes to me, and I am in to Cbus every two weeks,' he said. 'They have a list for say … formwork, gyprock, steel fixing, scaffold. They have three names there, four names here, three names here and they'll say to me 'which one's good?' … and I'll just tick it for him … and they say to Hutchinson 'that's who you are going to use'.' A Cbus Property spokesman previously said that its contractors were independent and 'subcontractors on all sites are appointed by the contractor, not Cbus Property'. Hutchinson did not return requests for comment. As they talked, Chen pulled out $5000 cash, rolled up with an elastic band, and reached under the table towards Darren's leg while tapping the official's foot. Darren shifted his hand under to take the money and placed the roll on his thigh, concealing it with his hand. A Parkview director did not return requests for comment before publication. But this time, a secret camera installed by police in Darren's office had recorded the handover. With Darren's bribe sorted, Chen paid a visit to the son. In Michael's office, Chen again removed $5000 cash from his pocket, tapped the union official to get his attention and gave him the cash under the table. 'Thank you,' Michael said, as he took the money. Later, Chen would tell his business partner that 'Loa Da' [Darren Greenfield] has told him 'no worries, the Epping job is definitely yours, you don't have to worry about it'. 'Once the Labor Party is in power, the union will be king again,' Chen said. Loading Three days later, Labor lost in a shock upset. Chen went back to CFMEU headquarters to complain to an unnamed employee that Darren had cancelled a meeting with him and his company had lost a major tender. Asking his interpreter to leave, he gave the CFMEU employee a $5000 roll of cash. Later that day, Parkview messaged Chen congratulating him on winning work on its $400 million construction project at Granville. In February 2020, as Chen looked to renew his CFMEU enterprise agreement, he met the same CFMEU employee at a Pyrmont cafe to discuss the deal and tenders for two Parkview projects. At the end of the meeting, as the pair walked back to Chen's car, Chen took a copy of the CFMEU enterprise agreement from the union employee, placed a bundle of banknotes totalling $5000 within the document, rolled it up and handed it back to the employee. By June, Chen was out of work and his competitors were winning jobs over him. Darren promised him a list of CFMEU-backed builders and said: 'If you have problems to get in the door, to tender, let me know.' When Chen flagged he would text message the jobs he was tendering for, the union boss cautioned him 'don't say anything, just the name … that's all I need to know'. Again, Darren took $5000 from Chen under the table, this time wedging it under his thigh to conceal it from the interpreter. Surveillance caught him placing the cash in his top desk drawer and covering it with a blue cloth. Darren admitted in the statement of facts that the money was to push Chen's company for jobs around Sydney 'which would not legitimately be due to Chen'. Police raided the CFMEU offices in November that year. They would find no receipt for the six payments. Five years later Darren would admit 'dishonestly' taking payments. But in a conversation recorded by police the next day, Michael asked his father 'what are we going to tell the boys? How much do you tell them?' 'Just tell them there is a stitch-up going on,' Darren said. The Greenfields will next face court for sentencing in November.
The Age
5 days ago
- The Age
Machetes, firebombings: This shouldn't be life in Melbourne
Melbourne is a peaceful city. Fear does not sit on our shoulders when we go out. Law and order prevail. There is no breakdown in society, but there is a worrying crack in the light. In the increasing lawlessness and disorder, there is a breaking down of certainty in that safety. Firebombings are an act of extreme violence and, in Melbourne, they are no longer a one-off occurrence. In the early hours of Tuesday, a construction company's headquarters was firebombed. El Dorado Contractors, based in the city's west, has been hit twice in a fortnight. Since September 2023, there have been at least 11 arson attacks on construction firms. The real number is likely higher. The attacks have intensified since the CFMEU was placed into administration last August. Loading The rotten state of the building industry in Victoria, exposed by The Age's Building Bad series, produced in conjunction with 60 Minutes and The Australian Financial Review, is hostage to a war of arson and intimidation by criminal players seeking power and money. The Operation Hawk taskforce, was set up in March, according to the Premier Jacinta Allan, or nine months earlier, according to police sources. There is, however, one consistency in each report of an attack. They are, says the premier, 'unacceptable'. We couldn't agree more. Also unacceptable is the firebombing of tobacco shops. There have been 133 attacks since March 2023 in Melbourne. The war for control of the billion-dollar illicit tobacco trade has turned quiet suburban streets into battle zones. They are not random attacks, yet the consequences not only affect neighbouring businesses. The drive-by shootings and attacks on homes can be devastating and deadly, as in the case of the death of Katie Tangey, an innocent bystander. Loading When the prevalence of machete attacks is bundled in with the tobacco and construction violence, then the sense of lawlessness in this state reaches a troubling level. On Sunday afternoon at Northland shopping centre, hundreds of people ran for their lives as two gangs, armed with machetes, were intent on causing harm to each other. There were injuries to some gang members, but none to the public. From noon today, the sale of machetes in this state is banned. Prohibition on possession of the knives will not come into effect until September 1. From that date, there will be a three-month amnesty for people to take machetes to a police station and not be charged. The crackdown on weapons was decided in March.
