Updated ,first published
Former workplace minister Murray Watt says it would be “ridiculous” to sack the official the Albanese government appointed to administer the CFMEU, as he rejected the opposition’s call to sack Mark Irving KC for redacting chapters critical of Labor from a report into union corruption.
This masthead revealed on Wednesday that Irving removed sections of a landmark report into union corruption. The report found union corruption added $15 billion in cost blowouts to Victoria’s Big Build infrastructure program, and that the Victorian Labor government ignored CFMEU graft and organised crime links on infrastructure projects.
Irving was appointed in August 2024 to administer the CFMEU by the Albanese government after this masthead exposed widespread graft and corruption in the union involving bikies, organised crime and intimidation.
Previously, the union had appointed lawyer Geoffrey Watson SC in July 2024 to investigate the claims.
Opposition industrial relations spokesperson Tim Wilson on Wednesday morning demanded the Watson report be released to the public, called for Irving to be removed and accused the government of attempts to bury the issue.
“The administrator should resign and if he won’t, the minister must sack him,” Wilson said. “They constantly shut down question time, shut down inquiries, and shut down questions that would have identified and gone to the heart of the CFMEU Labor cartel of corruption.”
The report, completed in December 2024, was requested by a Queensland Commission of Inquiry into the union, and Irving sent a version that removed the sections that contained findings that Victoria’s Labor government turned a blind eye to CFMEU corruption.
Irving said he deleted chapters from the report because he could not verify the accuracy of some information.
Workplace Minister Amanda Rishworth told parliament on Wednesday that Irving retained her full support and said the opposition was wrong to call for an effective administrator to be sacked.
“Not a single bad actor referred in this Watson report still works for the CFMEU and all have been removed by the administrator.,” Rishworth said.
Under Irving’s administration, the CFMEU has sacked dozens of officials and exposed several cases of serious corruption.
Watson appeared at the Queensland inquiry on Wednesday, where he also rejected opposition calls to sack Irving and said the government “would be mad” to sack Irving.
“I might have said some harsh things here today, but in my opinion … I’ve never met a more honest and decent man.”
Watson’s report said a 15 per cent cost was a conservative estimate of the impact of corruption on the public purse, which equated to a $15 billion impost on Victorian taxpayers.
“When $15 billion of taxpayers’ money is washed through a system and some of it ends up in the pockets of the Labor Party itself, there is something much deeper and much more important to rebuild public trust,” Watson said.
Environment Minister Watt, the previous workplace minister who represented Rishworth in a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday morning said it was “ridiculous” for the opposition to call for Irving’s dismissal.
Irving was responsibility to decide what parts of the report were released, not the government’s, he said.
“[Irving] made a judgment that there were aspects of that report that were not well-founded. It’s his call about what gets released,” Watt said.
Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic said Irving attempted an “industrial-scale cover-up” of corruption when he handed an edited version of the Watson report to the Queensland government’s iniquity.
“We need to get the answers today because this has created, in effect, a criminal cartel tax on Australia’s housing industry. Everyday Australians are paying more for construction and young Australians are paying more for their first homes because of this cover-up and this conduct.”
Kovacic asked government officials during a senate estimates hearing if the sections that were removed from the report contained information about Victorian MPs.
Deputy secretary of the workplace relations department, Greg Manning, said his department had received a truncated version of the report on January 27 and since then he had seen the material that had been removed.
“There were chapters that went to estimates of costs of corruption in the building sector and that went to knowledge of the corruption in the building sector.”
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Mike Foley is the climate and energy correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
