A campaign of firebombings and intimidation has erupted in Victoria’s construction sector as underworld players seek to control pockets of an industry supposedly being cleaned up by Labor state and federal government reforms.
The campaign intensified over recent weeks, with equipment on a Victorian-government backed social housing site torched on Sunday night and the family homes of major construction company directors separately targeted in attacks involving arson or violent confrontation.
In each of the three night-time attacks targeting construction company directors, official sources, speaking anonymously due to fear of repercussions, said family members, including children, of the directors were at home.
Expensive machinery owned by subcontractors at construction sites run by major building companies and developers has also been targeted in firebombings.
The Sunday night firebombing was directed at a subcontractor on the site of a $35 million state government-backed social housing development in the Geelong suburb of Newtown.
There was another arson attack last Wednesday at a site in Footscray managed by major building company Hickory.
Last November, nationwide demolition giant Delta had two of its earthmoving rigs– worth up to an estimated $2 million each – torched on a major Melbourne Docklands site.
The attacks have shocked the state’s construction sector, with insiders questioning whether the government, CFMEU administrators and authorities have the capacity to combat those behind them.
Last week Superintendent Geraldine Porter sent out a force-wide directive to police to alert an anti-corruption construction industry taskforce about allegations of underworld activity, threats, kickbacks and extortion.
“Corruption [within] the building and construction sector is believed to be extensive,” Porter told her fellow officers.
While the situation has become critical in Victoria, the construction sectors in NSW and Queensland are not unscathed.
The firebombing outside the family home of a construction union organiser in Sydney’s south-west in February remains unsolved.
In Queensland, a small number of construction union officials believed responsible for standover tactics targeting rival unionists and certain building companies are still working at the CFMEU.
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A campaign of firebombings and intimidation has erupted in Victoria’s construction sector as underworld players seek to control pockets of an industry supposedly being cleaned up by Labor state and federal government reforms.
The campaign intensified over recent weeks, with equipment on a Victorian-government backed social housing site torched on Sunday night and the family homes of major construction company directors separately targeted in attacks involving arson or violent confrontation.
In each of the three night-time attacks targeting construction company directors, official sources, speaking anonymously due to fear of repercussions, said family members, including children, of the directors were at home.
Expensive machinery owned by subcontractors at construction sites run by major building companies and developers has also been targeted in firebombings.
The Sunday night firebombing was directed at a subcontractor on the site of a $35 million state government-backed social housing development in the Geelong suburb of Newtown.
There was another arson attack last Wednesday at a site in Footscray managed by major building company Hickory.
Last November, nationwide demolition giant Delta had two of its earthmoving rigs– worth up to an estimated $2 million each – torched on a major Melbourne Docklands site.
The attacks have shocked the state’s construction sector, with insiders questioning whether the government, CFMEU administrators and authorities have the capacity to combat those behind them.
Last week Superintendent Geraldine Porter sent out a force-wide directive to police to alert an anti-corruption construction industry taskforce about allegations of underworld activity, threats, kickbacks and extortion.
“Corruption [within] the building and construction sector is believed to be extensive,” Porter told her fellow officers.
While the situation has become critical in Victoria, the construction sectors in NSW and Queensland are not unscathed.
The firebombing outside the family home of a construction union organiser in Sydney’s south-west in February remains unsolved.
In Queensland, a small number of construction union officials believed responsible for standover tactics targeting rival unionists and certain building companies are still working at the CFMEU.
Nothing to see here, move along…