Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie hints at probe extension
Updated ,first published
Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has dropped a not-so-subtle hint that the length of the state’s CFMEU investigation will more than double when he announced new hearings stretching back to the eve of the inquiry’s first reporting date.
The CFMEU and the Commission of Inquiry into Fraud in the Construction Industry announced on Tuesday morning that it was changing its schedule, moving next week’s session to July and adding a new session ending on 30 July.
Bleijie was also under pressure over the language he used to attack Labor figures following Saturday’s Stafford election; At the press conference he doubled down on what the opposition described as “schoolyard bullying” among school children.
According to the original terms of reference for the $20 million investigation, it was supposed to submit a report to the government by July 31. Commissioner Stuart Wood AM KC wrote to the government in recent weeks asking for an extension until December 2027.
Asked at an earlier press conference in Brisbane whether the government was considering the request, Bleijie did not confirm whether a decision had been made but said he would “hate to see a commission shut down when it’s not doing its job”.
“From what the commission has said – there seems to be a lot more work, so we are evaluating that at the moment,” Bleijie said, noting reports of more than 500,000 documents being worked through by the investigation team as discussions continued.
“Keeping in mind that commissions of inquiry are not cheap… there are a lot of resources, intense, intense resources that are put into commissions of inquiry.”
Crisafulli government launches investigation reporting with this masthead And 60 Minutes on crime, corruption and misconduct in unions and industry across the country.
Since late last year, 28 public hearings have been held over nine weeks. Four more three-day hearing weeks are now planned, starting from June 9, for a total of 40 days.
It aired allegations of former Labor ministers intervening in industry disputes with the CFMEU, campaigning against the union’s workplace safety regulator using “institutional corruption” and taking action to further government aims.
But the investigation also faced unique questions about the tension between impartiality and its promise, and the rhetoric of the Crisafulli government, which declared that the investigation was focused solely on the CFMEU and Labor’s links to the union.
At an unusual media conference held in March by Wood and Patrick Wheelahan KC, the senior counsel assisting the investigation (the only meeting to date, according to investigation figures), Wheelahan suggested that the investigation’s work had been halted.
“The inquiries and investigations we have done have revealed more than we expected,” he told reporters on the Gold Coast.
The MP stood by the language after Bleijie launched an insulting spritz at Labor leaders on Monday, describing Miles as a “clown” and a “puppet”, Shannon Fentiman as a “failure”, Grace Grace as a “disgrace”, Meaghan Scanlon as a “fraudster” and Cameron Dick as a surname.
Speaking to reporters in front of a group of Eagle Farm State School students, Bleijie had previously joked that he would behave himself before repeating everything except the label he suggested for Dick on Tuesday.
Asked whether such language was appropriate, Bleijie said it was and accused Labor figures of trying to distract from internal questions about Miles’ leadership of the party following the swing to the LNP in Stafford.
“I’m telling the truth, what I said yesterday was true,” Bleijie said.
Speaking in Redcliffe on Tuesday morning, Miles reiterated that each of his parliamentary Labor colleagues are working in the same direction and supporting Labor’s re-election to government in 2028.
Asked if that meant he wouldn’t resign sooner, Miles said “no.”
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Matt Dennien is a reporter for the Brisbane Times covering state politics, parliament and the public sector. He previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.
