‘Questions need to be answered’: Four lawyers walk from CFMEU corruption inquiry

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The commission of inquiry into CFMEU corruption has suffered a major setback, through the sudden resignation of its senior counsel assisting and three junior barristers amid concerns about its operations.

The resignation of veteran senior silk Liam Kelly, KC, who was named just weeks ago as the counsel assisting the commissioner, Stuart Wood, KC, threatens to upend the inquiry called by the conservative Queensland government. It also risks undermining the federal opposition’s plans to use the inquiry to heap pressure on the Albanese government over its failure to rid the nation’s construction sector of corruption.

Liam Kelly, KC, on October 1, during the first public hearing during the commission of inquiry into the CFMEU in Brisbane. Kelly has since resigned.

As the counsel assisting, Kelly was anticipated to play a key role in investigations and the interrogations of witnesses from the CFMEU in Queensland, as well as players in crime syndicates and building firms operating in Victoria and NSW but whose reach extends into Queensland.

Confidential sources told this masthead the resignation of Kelly and junior barristers Kate Juhasz, Polina Kinchina and Ben Dighton came after Kelly raised a series of concerns about the inquiry’s management and operation.

Queensland government sources said the concerns have been rebutted by Wood, but involved claims the commission’s operations were being negatively impacted by the failure to share key information, and disagreement between senior staff over investigative strategy.

A source close to the commission said new barristers were being recruited and it was business as usual at the inquiry, as investigations continued.

Commissioner Stuart Wood, KC, during the first public hearing on October 1 in Brisbane.

The commission of inquiry was launched in response to revelations of widespread corruption in the construction industry revealed in the “Building Bad” series of reports by this masthead, 60 Minutes and The Australian Financial Review.

Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King said the barristers’ departures were “very concerning” and raised questions about the inquiry as it geared up for public hearings expected within weeks.

“If the commission is going to stand the test of time for being a commission that has any integrity, then, you know, questions need to be answered about why so many staff are all departing at the same time,” King told this masthead.

“Not only do unions need to know that, to think that there is any credence to the commission, but the members of the public also need to know if the commission is being used as a political witch hunt or is it being used for proper purposes.”

Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King says the resignations are concerning.

This masthead sought to contact the four barristers for comment, but did not receive responses.

Wood’s appointment as commissioner has been viewed with deep scepticism by the Labor movement, given his longstanding ties to the Liberal Party.

The inquiry’s secretary, Bob Gee, who took leave from a senior public service role for the job in the weeks after the inquiry commenced, also left this week to become Queensland’s interim Victims’ Commissioner.

The departures come while law enforcement makes progress in its attempts to arrest those in the industry suspected of criminal behaviour.

Travers Grubb, a martial arts expert and former bodyguard of industry titan Daniel Grollo, was charged on Thursday over allegations he extorted a major building firm for more than $6 million in return for union peace.

In around 2012, Grubb was hired at the Grollo family-owned company Grocon, then Australia’s largest privately owned developer-builder, to protect chief executive Daniel Grollo and company assets amid the company’s pitched industrial battle with the CFMEU.

Grubb left Grocon a decade ago, and there is no suggestion Daniel Grollo has any knowledge or involvement in Grubb’s charges, which relate to alleged criminal activity in October 2024.

Detectives from Taskforce Hawk have also ramped up pressure on the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang over its involvement in the building industry along Australia’s east coast, searching the home of a key bikie gang figure who is also a person of interest to the Queensland commission of inquiry.

Wood’s (centre) commission of inquiry has been rocked by the reignations of (from left) barrister Kate Juhasz, secretary Bob Gee, and barristers Liam Kelly and Polina Kinchina.

The search, conducted under the auspices of a firearms prohibition order, is linked to allegations the bikie boss and fellow gang members from Victoria, Queensland and NSW have acted as mediators in building industry and union disputes along Australia’s east coast.

The significant increase in law enforcement attention by Victoria Police and a Melbourne-based Australian Federal Police team, along with news of the early setback to the Crisafulli government’s commission of inquiry in Queensland, highlights the inconsistent, patchwork response across Australia in combating allegations of corruption and organised crime in the building industry and CFMEU.

NSW Police continue to resist deploying dedicated officers to target the problem despite firebombings and threats in that state, while the AFP has provided no resources outside Melbourne, where police sources say they are scant.

The Albanese government this week shut down pressure for a parliamentary inquiry into the problems affecting the administration of the CFMEU, which remains federal Labor’s key response to the biggest scandal in the history of Australia’s construction sector.

This week, independent federal MP Allegra Spender demanded the government overhaul its efforts to fix the scandal-plagued union.

The Coalition has also lifted pressure on Labor amid continued revelations in this masthead of scandals and lawlessness in the construction union and broader sector as government-appointed administrator Mark Irving, KC, struggles to turn the CFMEU around.