EditorialJune 30, 2026 — 7:30pmBusinessman Tony Paragalli owns labour hire firm M1 Trades & Labour. This would be of little moment to the public. But for this: Paragalli has told The Age his firm had to pay underworld figure Mick Gatto to retain work on Victoria’s Big Build projects. M1 entities paid Gatto more than $1 million.They had won contracts through the proper channels, but then, Paragalli claimed, “we were blocked from working on sites by the union”. Talking directly with the union didn’t work, so they, like other companies, turned to Gatto, who was able to open the gates for them to do the work they had already won through tender. They felt they had no choice. When they tried to stop using Gatto, access to work sites stopped.The Age also recently reported that Norm D’Ambra, the owner of Big Build subcontractor Major Cranes, had made payments to Gatto totalling more than $500,000. An Age investigation revealed that D’Ambra paid Gatto to stop the CFMEU forcing his firms off major projects.These are just two of myriad cases we have uncovered; concerned experts and insiders are lining up to agree these sorts of examples run the breadth and depth of the $100 billion Big Build program.Dan Baulch, a former senior law enforcement official, analysed the information provided to The Age by a Gatto network insider. His conclusion was damning: there was no legitimate reason for the payments.Gatto of course denies wrongdoing, but that so many firms pay him shows the system, as currently constituted, is failing to tackle entrenched unwanted elements. As Baulch says, “I think they [Victorians] deserve nothing but the truth. This absolutely needs to be exposed.” Premier Jacinta Allan’s government was warned about CFMEU excesses.Marija ErcegovacTo which Allan, when questioned this week on our latest disclosures in relation to the costs of the CFMEU’s involvement, growing calls for a royal commission and the role of figures such as Gatto, offered a defence of her government’s actions, and of her time as the relevant minister, which was as embarrassing to her office in its attempt to deflect responsibility as it was demeaning in its insouciance to Victorians.In short, the premier did not understand why witnesses to suspected corruption were not reporting it to the police. “After all this time, if there is any evidence of any allegation of criminal behaviour that includes corruption and extortion, I don’t understand why that wouldn’t immediately be handed to Victoria Police,” Allan said.Perhaps, Premier, it is because the Big Build project is so riddled with criminals, standover merchants issuing threats of physical intimidation and black-banning that people are afraid.The premier’s statement that the government has worked to strengthen police powers and the Labour Hire Authority, and both have taken action, is counterbalanced by the views of three senior police officers leading the taskforce created to combat crime and corruption on the Big Build and in the wider construction sector. The officers told us new legislation was needed to fight construction corruption. What they were uncovering was not a crime that police had the power to investigate.Detective Inspector Ross Mitchell said that over two years, police had made progress mapping an industry cloaked in the extreme fear of reprisal. To lead detective Randeep Atwal, this is the rub: “We can count on one hand the amount of people that have actually made a formal complaint to police.”That is the reality. State Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny showed on Tuesday a similarly alarming lack of urgency as Allan. The government would continue to “hear from the police, to discuss from them, what their additional needs may be ... We’ll continue those conversations.” Conversations? The standover men and bikies will be trembling.Transport Infrastructure Minister Gabrielle Williams says the government infrastructure delivery agency (VIDA) will urgently establish a mandatory register of approved industrial relations consultants and mediators. This is likely to be helpful but her apparent alarm, in a letter to contractors, at The Age’s reporting of the active role of fixers in the industry is either disingenuous or alarmingly out of touch.Allan this week partly blamed inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic for costs skyrocketing on the Big Build. This is undoubtedly part of the picture. But, as has been clear for years, so too was her government’s indulgence of a union and industry spinning out of control.It wasn’t global events that pushed Tony Paragalli, and so many like him, to Mick Gatto’s door. It’s an insult to insinuate it.Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.From our partners