Victoria’s construction royal commission must investigate crime, intimidation and labour abuse on building sites – but also the political, financial and procurement systems that allow corruption to flourish.

The corruption allegations engulfing Victoria’s construction industry have rightly shocked Australians. Organised crime, intimidation, labour hire rackets, inflated costs and abuse of workers all deserve the full force of the law. But if the royal commission stops there, it will fail.

Construction corruption does not begin with the worker on the scaffold or even the union official at the site gate. Nor does it end with the subcontractor or labour hire company. It runs through an entire political economy of land, property, finance, procurement and politics. A serious inquiry must work in two directions simultaneously.

It must get to the bottom. That means exposing wage theft, sham contracting, coercion, labour hire abuse, organised crime, false invoicing, phoenix companies and intimidation on building sites. These are real crimes committed against workers, subcontractors and taxpayers. They deserve investigation and prosecution.

But it must also get........

© Pearls and Irritations