Big Build royal commission LIVE updates: Witnesses on controversial Gap Road project continue after counsel assisting lashes government

9.56am

The government redactions that drew the royal commission’s ire

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As mentioned earlier in this blog, counsel assisting Chris Young, KC, strongly criticised the Victorian Infrastructure Delievery Authority (VIDA) yesterday for redactions that took out relevant material from documents it was forced to disclose to the commission.

You can see the covered-up notes that Young complained about below:

Young tabled two versions of a book of handwritten notes by Evan Tattersall, the former chief executive officer of Rail Projects Victoria (later rebadged as VIDA), which contained entries about the Gap Road level crossing removal project, which is the subject of the current block of hearings.

One version of the notebook was almost entirely blacked out, and Young noted that it was submitted to the commission on November 7, more than two weeks after the commission requested information from VIDA about Gap Road, and just two days before hearings began.

9.43am

Bikies arrested over fake qualifications

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Late yesterday there was a significant in the fake qualifications scam that has recently emerged as a fresh Big Build headache with Nick McKenzie reporting that two senior bikies had been arrested and charged.

Here’s a taste of that story:

The bosses of two of Victoria’s most feared bikie gangs, the Bandidos and the Hells Angels, have been charged over allegations they obtained falsified qualifications as part of a criminal racket that has infected the Labor government’s Big Build.

Hells Angels supremo Kane Montebello and Bandidos president Codee Staff are veteran bikies who both worked as CFMEU health and safety officials before revelations in The Age forced them from their union roles and led to the Kourakis royal commission.

Staff is also the lieutenant to fellow Bandidos leader and ex-CFMEU Big Build official Joel Leavitt, with the pair currently running a construction industry labour hire and consulting business. Kane Montebello is the brother of serving CFMEU senior organiser Matt Montebello.

Victoria Police’s Taskforce Hawk charged Kane Montebello and Staff this week with procuring fake building industry certificates from notorious industry conman Jack Younes.

Though the charges have not been proven, if the two former CFMEU health and safety delegates were operating with false building industry qualifications – posing a potential safety risk – it would further highlight how the construction union abandoned its principles when it embarked on the bikie-gang recruiting spree around 2021.

Read the full story here.

9.40am

Welcome to our live coverage

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Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the Kourakis royal commission into Victoria’s building industry.

Yesterday was most notable for a lengthy opening spray from counsel assisting the commission Chris Young, KC, towards the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) about its tardy and heavily redacted disclosure of documents.

That criticism was back by commissioner Christopher Kourakis, AC, who said it was interfering with the orderly running of the inquiry.

After that rather dramatic opening, the witnesses were a procession of construction company figures reflecting on relationships with the union, the practicalities on the ground on the $110 million Gap Road level crossing removal and the response of government agencies to problems.

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