Thursday, 19 February 2026

 Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (17:20): (1545) My adjournment this evening is directed to the Premier, and the action I seek is for the government to establish a royal commission into allegations of systemic corruption on CFMEU-controlled worksites associated with Victoria’s Big Build. The recently released Watson report details very serious allegations of criminal infiltration, coercion and misconduct within the Victorian construction sector. That much is undisputed; the allegations are there. It outlines claims of outlaw motorcycle gangs exerting influence on major projects, enterprise bargaining processes being manipulated and labour hire arrangements being used to extract unlawful payments. It further documents allegations of ghost shifts, the sale of positions on worksites and intimidation of contractors.

I do not know whether those allegations are true or not. We are not investigators in this place. But the only way to determine the truth of them, given the scale and the breadth and the seriousness of these allegations and given that the people making the allegations are credible actors, is to call a royal commission. These matters go directly to the heart of government administration. More than a hundred billion dollars of course was committed to the Big Build, and Victorians are entitled to confidence that this investment has not been distorted by criminality, extortion or systemic misconduct. Plenty of us have heard the rumours, and plenty of us have read the papers. There have been lots and lots of allegations made. I do not say that they are true, I merely say that they ought to be properly and credibly investigated by a body that has coercive evidentiary powers.

The Premier stated that aspects of the report are untested. That is true. We should test them. The seriousness and scale of the allegations demand that independent examination, and coercive powers are the minimum needed to get to the bottom of them. Only a royal commission can compel witnesses, examine financial flows and determine the extent to which public projects have been compromised. This is not about relitigating industrial relations policy. It is not about wages. It is not about cutting entitlements. It is about restoring integrity and public trust in the administration of Victoria’s largest infrastructure program – a program that is frankly too big and beyond the means of the government and serves only as a shrine to the former Premier’s ego. I call on the Premier to establish a royal commission into these allegations so that the Victorian public can have full transparency and confidence in the management of their taxpayer-funded projects.