An investigation reveals the relationships that have vaulted companies with links to criminals into favoured positions on the nation’s building sites.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.Firms backed by a Sydney underworld-linked businessman involved in buying illegal guns and the former boss of Victoria’s Comanchero bikie gang have secured critical backing from the CFMEU, facilitating their access to major construction projects, including taxpayer-funded sites.
Victorian Police Minister Anthony Carbines said on Sunday that Irving had requested a meeting with Victoria Police and pointed to an existing organised crime taskforce. But prior to his removal, the CFMEU sources said Spernovasilis had directed his union to provide an EBA to two of Salter’s firms, including one registered in Mitris’ name and which purports to employ former Australian soldiers.
When interviewed, Salter claimed the tribunal ruling was unjust and denied any wrongdoing but could not explain why he had used Billy Mitris to source a union EBA in Victoria.Mitris has no criminal convictions, but his ties to the underworld have also been aired in a 2015 case involving a convicted mafia drug trafficker who was living at Mitris’ city apartment. The trafficker claimed $20,000 in cash seized from him by police was a legitimate loan from Mitris.
CFMEU organisers and delegates feared challenging these firms because they could use their high-ranking union connections to quash dissent from ordinary members, he said.Mitris, who for years has provided security services to nightclubs and the construction sector, is associated with at least two other labour hire or traffic management firms that have secured valuable union EBAs, with Fair Work Commission documents showing Mitris has signed off on multiple CFMEU agreements.
However, sources said OCC’s current managing director, former AFL player Luke Livingstone, was an honest and respected businessman who had sought to remove all underworld-linked identities from the firm, instead using his network of football stars, including former Hawthorn captain Luke Hodge and ex-Eagles vice-captain Josh Kennedy, to help win work on major sites.
In response to questions from this masthead, Marc Lunedei said in a statement that MC Labour Group had no affiliation or association with criminal organisations or organised crime and his firm “does not conduct, accept or tolerate any unlawful behaviour”.
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