Big Build royal commission LIVE updates: First Gap Road level project witnesses to testify at construction royal commission
Updated ,first published
Below is a delayed livestream of the royal commission proceedings, if you would like to make a submission to the inquiry click here.
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Staying with Tyrrell, who was questioned on when he noticed CFMEU officials started to show up at the Gap Road site at Sunbury and how they behaved on site.
Tyrrell told the commission on June 6, 2022 the work on the project stopped when the construction union officials turned up on the site.
“So once they come on site and ...they work in an area where you can’t work and lift things, there’s a lot of crane movements there, so works have to stop,” the machinery operator explained.
He said that was when the train to Sunbury was stopped because they were building a bridge, and there were 24-hour rosters to ensure the work was done in 30 days.
Below is a delayed livestream of the royal commission proceedings, if you would like to make a submission to the inquiry click here.
The first witness has been called at the royal commission: crane operator Glenn Tyrrell, who worked for labour hire company Zoom.
Counsel assisting today is Tim Jeffrie, who has asked whether Tyrrell is aware that some labour hire firms only take workers associated with certain unions. Tyrrell answers: “Correct.”
When asked whether he’s aware of how the affiliation works, he tells the commission: “No, I don’t”.
He confirms he was elected as health and safety representative at the Gap Road project, and while he can’t recall exactly when, he believes it was from August 2021.
The last word from counsel assisting the commission Chris Young, KC, on a busy day yesterday is worth another look.
He noted that the commission’s staff working with the various parties who had received notices to produce material under the inquiry’s sweeping powers which make it an offence to fail to comply.
But he expressed some pretty sharp dissatisfaction with the response from some quarters including the government.
It is extremely concerning to us as council assisting that some parties have not complied with the terms of notices to produce or produce documents outside agreed deadlines. Those documents must be produced forthwith.
We have been informed, also on behalf of some state parties, that there have been delays that have been incurred. They have incurred because of the need to receive approval from certain government committees, processes, or persons in accordance with some internal government policy.
In our submission as council assisting, that is not a reasonable excuse to delay production. We raise these matters now to highlight at the start of this hearing block that compliance with these notices is necessary. It is not optional, and further delays may undermine the work of the commission and require further steps to be taken, including recalling the witnesses if those delays continue to occur.
The commission has flagged that it will call its first witnesses to testify today.
The identities of the witnesses cannot be published ahead of their appearance, but the commission has made clear that this two-week hearing block will focus solely on the Gap Road level crossing removal project in Sunbury.
More specifically, it will be looking at the events of June 2022, when the CFMEU effectively muscled its way onto the project and into the heart of the $109 billion Big Build program.
The royal commission released a slew of documents relating to the first day’s hearing. Here’s a selection of the more compelling examples.
Good morning, welcome to our live coverage of the royal commission into Victoria’s construction industry.
To catch you up on what was covered yesterday, read:
- Adam Carey’s news story on the warnings that Jacinta Allan’s department sought to deliver in 2022 and 2023 about how the CFMEU’s behaviour just on traffic controllers could add more than $400 million to the cost of major project;
- Michael Bachelard‘s analysis of the first day proper of hearings; and
- Nick McKenzie’s read on where the royal commission might be heading in its examination of the Gap Road project.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.