The Big Build royal commission’s first block of public hearings began on Monday 9 November, with counsel assisting Chris Young KC taking the commission through a 2022 stop-work at the Gap Road level crossing removal in Sunbury and contractor documents describing the CFMEU’s access to ministers, ABC News and The Guardian reported.
The inquiry is formally the Royal Commission into the Integrity of Major Public and Civil Infrastructure Construction Projects in Victoria. Its commissioner is Chris Kourakis, a former chief justice of South Australia, according to ABC News. The hearings are held at Level 9, 54 Wellington Street, Collingwood, and are livestreamed.
Young said 20 witnesses have been compelled to appear during the November hearings, The Guardian reported. More than 110,000 documents have been requested and private hearings have already been held, according to ABC News.
Young addressed the status of that material. He said all the themes canvassed were allegations at this stage, some of which had been denied, ABC News reported.
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What the Contractor Documents Said
A 2017 John Holland memo was read to the commission, ABC News reported. It said:
“We also understand the CFMEU have unprecedented access to ministers and other key Victorian government stakeholders.”
A 2021 John Holland document said the union “enjoy a significant level of influence within the state government”, The Guardian reported. The document also said:
“It is a level of influence not seen in previous years and is unlikely to diminish.”
The Gap Road Stop-Work
Gap Road in Sunbury is one of Victoria’s level crossing removals. Its removal was announced in 2018, and the road was taken under the railway with a new rail bridge, according to ABC News. The Rail Network Alliance on the job included John Holland and CPB Contractors.
The commission heard that work stopped on 6 June 2022 and resumed on 7 June after control of the site was transferred to the CFMEU, ABC News reported. In Young’s account, as reported by The Guardian, a 13-minute meeting was followed by a meeting at the CFMEU, which resolved the issues.
Records show union officials left the site at 3:11pm on 7 June and work resumed at 6pm, according to ABC News.
“The documents produced record that nothing by way of rectification of safety issues was done between 3:11pm and 6pm to answer any of those notices,” Young said.
He also told the commission how the documents read on the outcome.
“What the documents seem to record is an agreement to such demands as were made by the CFMEU.”
Notes of an internal contractor meeting, read by Young, recorded that subcontractor Wagstaff Piling was pressured not to work, ABC News reported. Police and WorkSafe Victoria were notified. Victoria Police took no action, as it was regarded as an occupational health and safety issue.
The commission also heard a June 2022 call to WorkSafe from Neil Thompson, the Rail Network Alliance’s health and safety manager, The Guardian reported.
“We actually called Victoria police to escort themself off site. Victoria police said there was nothing they could do,” Thompson said.
The Cost to the State
The initial target cost was $110 million, raised to $116 million after the June 2022 incident, ABC News reported. The alliance delivered the project for $104 million, so the partners collected an extra $2 million in profit. Under the contract, the firms kept 35 per cent of any saving below target and paid half of any overrun, up to a cap.
“Practically speaking, every dollar spent at Gap Road was paid first by the state,” Young said.
After the stop-work, B K Labour Hire’s workforce on site grew from two to 20, and by September that year it had billed the firms $1.2 million, according to ABC News.
What the Commission Hears Next
Young said submissions had described similar incidents on other projects, including the North East Link, and that some government agencies had not provided documents as required or on time, ABC News reported.
“It is instructive that the commission has heard from other contractors with remarkably similar experience on other major projects,” he said.
Future blocks will look at organised crime in construction and how government money was allocated. The first block runs until Friday 20 November.
Premier Ben Carroll, whose first act as premier was to call the commission, denied any knowledge of the CFMEU’s access to senior officials and ministers, ABC News reported.
“What today’s hearings show is that I am a premier that will make the tough decisions,” Carroll said on 9 November.
He confirmed the state is covering legal representation for former premiers Jacinta Allan and Daniel Andrews, as at previous royal commissions, The Guardian reported. The state election is on 28 November.
More Melbourne coverage is in our Melbourne archive.
Sources: ABC News, “Victoria’s Big Build royal commission hears CFMEU influence was ‘unprecedented'”, 9 November 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-09/victoria-big-build-royal-commission-hears-cfmeu-influence/107364446); ABC News, “CFMEU’s ‘unprecedented’ political links aired at Victoria’s Big Build hearing”, 9 November 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-09/vic-election-blog-big-build-royal-commission/107357514); ABC News, “Victoria’s Big Build royal commission explained”, 9 November 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-09/victoria-big-build-construction-royal-commission-explainer/107352214); The Guardian, “CFMEU ‘enjoy a significant level of influence’ over Victorian government, Big Build royal commission hears”, 9 November 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/nov/09/big-build-royal-commission-hears-cfmeu-enjoy-a-significant-level-of-influence-over-victorian-government-ntwnfb)
Photo: Totallynotarandomalt69, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Illustrative only: the old Melton Highway level crossing at Sydenham, under the rail bridge that replaced it, in September 2026. It is not the Gap Road site in Sunbury examined by the commission.
