‘Direct line to Jacinta’: CFMEU’s links to political power and organised crime probed

Résumé détaillé

A former union figure has described his boss boasting about his ability to influence which contractors will win work on major projects.

Former top construction union boss Joe Myles boasted of having “a direct line to Jacinta Allan’s office” during a pivotal meeting about control of a level-crossing removal project, a former union official claims.

Paul Tzimas, a former Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union organiser, told the royal commission that Myles also threatened to lobby the state government not to award the project’s builders a contract for Melbourne Airport rail during a tense meeting at the union headquarters.

The meeting on June 7, 2022 was called after the union had shut down the $110 million Gap Road level-crossing removal project in Sunbury for two days and has been a focal point for the commission in its first week of witness testimony.

Tzimas told the hearing that Myles, his boss, told two John Holland managers that if their consortium did not agree to the union’s demands – which included appointing union-favoured labour hire and traffic management firms – it could jeopardise their prospects of working on airport rail.

“There was a mention that, or words to the effect, about sort of having a ‘direct line to Jacinta Allan’s office’,” Tzimas said.

“I was probably surprised because I didn’t feel or think that as a union we had that type of influence.”

At the time, Allan was the minister responsible for the government’s substantial transport project agenda. A spokesman for Allan declined to comment.

Tzimas said it was well known that Elizabeth Doidge, who is married to Myles, was employed as the CFMEU’s political organiser and government liaison. She has previously defended the union’s relationship with the government.

Myles was sacked in mid-2024 amid the Building Bad scandal and was heavily criticised in the report of Geoffrey Watson, SC, tabled in the Queensland commission of inquiry, but in 2022 he was the CFMEU’s most senior Big Build official.

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