CFMEU inquiry LIVE updates day 2: More witnesses to give evidence as hearing continues

An official removed politically explosive findings that Victoria’s Labor government turned a blind eye to CFMEU graft and organised crime on infrastructure projects, we can reveal.

This masthead asked CFMEU administrator Mark Irving, KC, if he or his administration had whitewashed material damaging to Labor from the report.

In an extraordinary development last night, the senior barrister released the deleted chapters and criticised the corruption expert he hired to write them.

Irving’s decision to release the deleted material came after Queensland’s Commission of Inquiry moved this week to use its powers to discover the removed chapters of the report by anti-corruption expert Geoffrey Watson, SC, having been provided a different version of the “final” report last month.

Former Queensland minister Mark Bailey has been accused of directing his department and its contractors to negotiate with the CFMEU, under a policy that raised red flags with the former federal construction watchdog.

Giving evidence to Queensland’s CFMEU inquiry, the state’s civil construction industry chief also accused the government of running a sham consultation around the policy, which it was warned read “like a CFMEU document”.

Launched by the state last year after reporting by this masthead and 60 Minutes into criminality, corruption and misconduct in the CFMEU and construction industry nationwide, the inquiry resumed its public work yesterday.

The man charged with investigating the CFMEU by its government-appointed administrators, Geoffrey Watson SC – who appeared in the opening week of public hearings in November – is also scheduled to be called to the stand again this week.

Civil Contractors Federation Queensland CEO Damian Long, told the inquiry yesterday he had heard from public servants and contractors that the CFMEU was involved in departmental negotiations – repeating a second-hand claim from senior public servants that there was a “ministerial direction to negotiate” with the union instead of the Australian Workers’ Union.

He told the inquiry this direction came from then transport minister Mark Bailey via his department director-general, Neil Scales, and one of his deputies.

Read the full story here.

Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of the Queensland government’s Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU and Misconduct in the Construction Industry.

Our reporters Matt Dennien and William Davis will bring you live updates from the Brisbane Magistrates Court.