A Labor Party donor whose CFMEU-backed company was allegedly pushed onto the Big Build after pressure from Jacinta Allan’s office has pleaded guilty to falsifying paperwork connected to cash withdrawals authorities suspect may have been used as bribes.
The owner of controversial labour hire firm BK Labour, Bernard Kearney, on Friday cut a deal with prosecutors to avoid a criminal conviction and reduce the number of charges he was facing by pleading guilty to creating a false document to disguise the reason his business allegedly made several highly suspicious financial transactions.
BK Labour had claimed the money at the centre of the suspect transactions was intended for sporting clubs, but sources with inside knowledge of BK Labour’s operations, not authorised to speak publicly, said Taskforce Hawk disproved this by contacting the clubs.
The minor court result – a non-conviction, $3000 fine and no official explanation as to where the money actually went – again highlights why police face significant constraints in their ability to tackle Big Build wrongdoing, as recently detailed in public comments by the senior police leading Taskforce Hawk.
On Friday, Chief Commissioner Mike Bush again signalled the force’s desire for new powers at a press conference alongside Premier Jacinta Allan.
Kearney’s court fine is much less than the suspect payments tracked by police. Taskforce Hawk is still investigating who may have received the falsely recorded payments.
When police raided BK Labour’s Port Melbourne offices in December, they alleged that “invoices were falsified” by the firm and they were “investigating a number of other payments and cash withdrawals” as part of a broader investigation into the labour hire industry.
The finalisation of the court case places the focus on Allan, who has been accused of backing the CFMEU takeover of a Big Build rail crossing project in 2022 that ultimately benefited BK Labour.
BK Labour has turned over almost $400 million on the Big Build in recent years with the help of the CFMEU.
Earlier this month, The Age published claims that state government officials told the consortium on the Gap Road level crossing removal project that then-transport infrastructure minister Allan wanted it to cut a deal with the CFMEU.
Three Big Build sources with deep knowledge of the project have separately claimed that ministerial pressure was applied from Allan’s office in the 2022 Gap Road dispute between the CFMEU and the Rail Infrastructure Alliance, a partnership comprising large contractors CPB and John Holland, as well as government agencies Rail Projects Victoria and Metro Trains Melbourne.
The sources claimed the CFMEU deal, struck after Allan’s office intervened, enabled the union to install BK Labour on the crossing removal project, along with CFMEU delegates.
The premier has denied the allegations, but has repeatedly refused to establish a royal commission or judicial inquiry that could probe them.
The Gap Road project sources spoke to The Age on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the project or the alleged intervention of Allan’s office.
The sources insisted the intervention of Allan’s office came in mid-2022, after CPB and John Holland resisted aggressive CFMEU demands to install BK Labour and place CFMEU delegates on what was originally a project associated with the rival Australian Workers’ Union and one of its affiliated labour hire firms.
“We definitely got a call saying, ‘Can you work with the union or not? The minister wants to know,’” one source involved in the project claimed.
The sources also said the two mega-contractors were told their willingness to deal with the CFMEU could affect their prospects of winning a separate contract, the Melbourne Airport Rail Sunshine-to-Albion package.
Because of concerns held by project staff about the appropriateness of pressure applied by Allan’s office, the project managers demanded the request from the government to meet the CFMEU be formalised.
After this occurred, project managers met at CFMEU headquarters with union boss Joe Myles, who demanded BK Labour be installed on the Gap Road project and the project also employ CFMEU health and safety representatives.
Alliance project records confirm that not only were the CFMEU demands on the Gap Road project agreed to, but that state government officials were informed in writing that engaging BK Labour on the site would cost taxpayers almost $2 million more than the AWU labour hire firm it replaced.
BK Labour was one of several labour hire firms that donated to the Allan government allegedly as a result of requests made by the CFMEU and Myles.
There is no suggestion that the falsified documents over which Kearney pleaded guilty relate to any payments to Myles.
Allan has previously referred questions about these donations back to the Labor Party.
Asked if donations from suspect companies should be returned, Suburban Rail Loop Minister Nick Staikos said on Thursday that was a matter for the party.
On Friday, The Age identified Myles as one of several sacked CFMEU bosses accused of serious wrongdoing on Labor’s Big Build but who continue to wield influence on state government projects through networks of loyal union delegates, safety representatives and labour hire firms as they plot their return to power.
In his February 2026 report for the union’s administrator tabled in a Queensland royal commission, top anti-corruption lawyer Geoffrey Watson, SC, estimated labour hire on the Big Build generated more than $1 billion a year.
In the report, Watson said “crooked deals” were struck between labour hire companies and union officials, accusing senior figure Myles of assisting BK Labour.
Allan was asked on Friday if she was worried that people such as Myles were still pulling strings on construction sites, saying: “Any questions regarding union figures or people associated with the union should be put to the federal government’s appointed administrator, who is responsible for the operation of the union.”
Speaking hours before the BK Labour deal was revealed in court, Bush said he was still seeking new powers from the state government.
Last month, senior Taskforce Hawk officers told The Age they needed law changes to properly combat the infiltration of Victoria’s construction sector by organised crime.
Bush declined to provide specifics on the powers required, but said: “There are various [powers], and we’re happy to provide the detail at some point. But they … focus on unexplained wealth, more powers to track money, to intercept communications.”
Bush also noted his taskforce’s detectives were being held back in their work by the inability “to give reassurance to those people who are being extorted that they can come to us confidentially, and we can keep them safe”.
Allan, standing beside Bush, also declined to give details on the discussions she had with police or if new laws would be introduced before the November election.
Deputy Premier Ben Carroll has reportedly told colleagues he is not opposed to a royal commission. He was asked repeatedly on Friday if he shared Allan’s outright opposition to a royal commission, and said the government was focused on strengthening the corruption watchdog.
“We are steadfast in getting on with the job of strengthening the Independent, Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, giving the … authority the powers it needs, as well as doing everything we can to give the police the powers it needs to stamp out any illegal activity on building sites,” he said.
Carroll said he had also sought assurances from the Victorian School Building Authority that bikies and organised crime had not infiltrated the state’s school building program.
“I am as certain as I can be,” he said.
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