Updated ,first published
A bikie boss charged with an extortion attempt linked to a construction dispute was a key figure in the CFMEU faction that the Victorian government was previously warned had hijacked major government projects, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
The charging of Bandidos bikie president and ex-union official Joel Leavitt on Thursday represents a major breakthrough for the police taskforce launched last year in response to media revelations of rampant organised crime in the building industry.
Leavitt, police said, was arrested early on Thursday morning and charged over his alleged role in what was claimed to be a $663,000 extortion attempt and for failing to provide detectives with an access pin for his phone.
A 32-year-old Watsonia man, also a current patched member of the Bandidos, was charged with failing to comply with a direction to assist and was bailed to appear in court in April. A 55-year-old Mernda man was released.
Leavitt’s prosecution also heaps pressure on the Allan government over its previous failure to act on repeated warnings about his CFMEU faction and its rorting of major Labor infrastructure projects.
The government is also facing mounting calls for a fresh independent inquiry into the CFMEU scandal, including from the workplace regulator, which told federal parliament on Wednesday night that Victorians had a right to know what had gone wrong.
Documents seen by this masthead reveal that the state government’s internal Big Build reporting system detailed multiple incidents in which Leavitt’s small but powerful union grouping – known as the Brisbane crew or Irish faction – had “blackmailed”, “threatened” and held “hostage” Labor’s Big Build contractors, driving up project costs on at least two major sites between 2022 and 2024.
That alleged misconduct is not related to Leavitt’s alleged extortion attempt in January and has never been thoroughly investigated by law enforcement.
On Thursday, Premier Jacinta Allan insisted she had not been aware of the extent of the issues engulfing the government’s signature $100 billion Big Build program until this masthead’s reporting in 2024 and that whenever issues were raised she passed them on to the appropriate authorities.
At a combative press conference, Allan batted away questions about a call from corruption-busting lawyer Geoffrey Watson, SC, for an independent inquiry, with coercive powers, made in Watson’s report released by Queensland’s inquiry into the CFMEU.
“The appointment of a federal administrator has addressed these individuals and gotten rid of these bad actors. That is the focus. That is the immediate action, not delaying it through a royal commission,” she said.
Her insistence came as the national workplace regulator joined the state and federal opposition, corruption watchdog Transparency International and peak industry groups in backing an independent inquiry into alleged illegality on Victoria’s Big Build.
In a significant intervention, Fair Work Commission general manager Murray Furlong said voters had a right to know about wrongdoing on projects they bankrolled and that could be achieved through an inquiry.
“I also indicated [to CFMEU administrator Mark Irving] that this issue won’t and shouldn’t go away without accountability, that it impacts on every Victorian to varying degrees, the rest of the country, and I said that Victorians have a right to know,” he said.
He also revealed Victorian government “officials” had privately told him the estimated cost of this misbehaviour could be $15 billion or higher – in line with an estimate from Watson.
In making his comments on oath at a Senate estimates hearing, Furlong, a senior federal public servant, backed the $15 billion figure cited in Watson’s landmark corruption report.
Furlong said the figure was “within the range” of the information he had been given, which included costs up to 30 per cent.
Allan brushed off the claim on Thursday, saying the CFMEU administrator had decided the figure was not well tested or properly founded.
Melbourne Magistrates’ Court was told on Thursday that Joel Leavitt had, on January 18, allegedly attended a cafe in Yea with five others, some of them patched bikies, to “discuss money owed” from a business loan gone bad.
The alleged victim refused to attend and asked Leavitt to instead meet him at a factory in Brooklyn, the bail hearing was told. Police allege that after Leavitt left the cafe, owned by the man’s wife, a convoy of three cars drove past the complainant’s house, beeping the horn as they passed.
The next day, Leavitt and patched bikie members on motorbikes and in cars went to the Brooklyn factory and demanded more than $600,000, the Bandidos president explaining “someone has to pay” and that he “could be very convincing when he needed to be”, the court heard.
The court was told the alleged victim denied owing money and now lived in fear, so much so that he had left his home, closed down the cafe and been unable to work.
Detective Senior Constable William Mountney said Leavitt had a “propensity for violence” and no bail conditions were capable of stopping him getting in contact with the alleged victim or instructing others to do so.
Leavitt was granted bail on the condition he did not communicate with any of the co-accused or Bandido members before his next court appearance in June.
His prosecution was welcomed by multiple Big Build insiders who dealt with the bikie – mostly when he was a CFMEU health and safety representative – on the Hurstbridge Rail Upgrade and Melbourne Metro between 2019 and 2024.
Even when Leavitt was forced from his union role after being shot at a bikie gang clubhouse in around mid-2023, he continued to work on Big Build and other major Victorian sites.
Three Big Build insiders who dealt with him said he was the most “rogue, demanding and intimidating” member of the CFMEU’s so-called Irish faction, which caused industrial chaos.
The faction’s conduct, including allegations it repeatedly acted improperly, is documented in the internal reporting system maintained by Big Build project alliance partners, which typically involve private companies and government agencies.
The Big Build internal reporting system described how Leavitt’s faction demanded that certain union-friendly subcontractors be hired on state government sites even though they were far more expensive than other contractors. If Big Build major contractors refused, the union faction threatened unlawful industrial action, the internal documents state.
Other documents held by Big Build project managers record Leavitt requesting over a dozen of his associates, including bikie gang members, friends and relatives, be given lucrative roles on a rail level-crossing removal project.
“There are threats ‘we will shut project down’ if the requests are not met,” one file states. Another describes the union faction “effectively blackmailing” a rail project.
This masthead has also previously reported how Leavitt pressured multiple Big Build subcontractors to sponsor his boxing promotion company’s events and was suspected of manipulating Big Build employees’ catering events for his personal benefit.
In his report, Watson described Leavitt as “a brutal criminal with a bad criminal record” and said he joined the union in 2017 as a “young activist”, close to former top official Joe Myles.
Watson found Leavitt was appointed as a health and safety representative in 2019 without an election.
“The records are unclear, but it seems Leavitt never underwent any training for this role. As part of his employment package, Leavitt was earning more than $200,000 and given a government-funded car.”
Watson told the Queensland inquiry into the CFMEU on Thursday that Leavitt was a “dangerous character” and his arrest had eased his nerves.
“I don’t usually suffer from this, but I was a little bit worried about some retributions,” he told the inquiry. “And I felt a lot easier when I [saw he was] behind bars … my own judgment is he is an extremely dangerous character.”
Watson described the Hurstbridge project as “chock-a-block” with outlaw motorcycle gangs and an example of a public infrastructure project over time and budget.
“These people were not just patched members, they were leaders – either chapter presidents or, in some cases, national presidents.”
He also highlighted Hurstbridge as a site used by bikie gangs for drug distribution.
“If the drugs weren’t being delivered from there, deals are being organised from these sites,” he said.
Watson said corruption was also so rife in the labour-hire industry that there were no attempts to cover it up. He said labour-hire companies would pay a bribe to CFMEU officials, and those officials would then insist they were used on a particular site.
“There was no secret about it … these fellas were just stating it in front of people,” he told the hearing.
None of Leavitt’s alleged wrongdoing and rorting led to any government response until mid-2024, when it was first reported by this masthead’s Building Bad series.
Claims of wider government inaction have reached a crescendo this week after the publishing of Watson’s report into union corruption and the intervention of Furlong, of the Fair Work Commission. Watson’s report concludes that Victorian Labor turned a blind eye to corruption on the Big Build.
Transparency International Australia chief executive Clancy Moore called on the Victorian government to hold a royal commission.
“The evidence is clear; CFMEU corruption, organised crime gangs and dodgy construction companies have plagued Victoria’s $100 billion build since day one,” he said.
Shadow attorney-general James Newbury has referred the issue to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission. The Coalition said it would hold a royal commission if elected.
“This is the worst case of corruption in Victoria’s history, and we must not be left reliant on interstate investigations to get to the bottom of what has occurred,” Newbury said.
The pressure on the government to act also follows this masthead’s revelation on Thursday of a fresh round of firebombings, one at a building site in Southbank and another outside a construction executive’s home.
The attacks, both in January, are connected to about a dozen firebombings over the past 18 months, and industry sources, speaking anonymously due to fear of repercussions, suggest that gangland syndicates believe they can shrug off growing police and regulatory attention, as with Victoria’s tobacco wars.
The January 11 Southbank firebombing targeted machinery being used by the Delta Group, a nationwide demolition giant that had two of its earthmoving rigs – worth up to an estimated $2 million each – torched on other large sites in late 2024.
A late January attack on the construction company employee involved the torching of the man’s car outside his home and is connected to two other firebombings last year.
With William Davis and Matt Dennien
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Nick McKenzie is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email.