Big Build royal commission LIVE updates: Big Build royal commission LIVE updates: Claims Setka described former Andrews adviser as a ‘good asset to the union’ as Gap Road probe continues

Updated November 12, 2026 — 11:08am,first published November 12, 2026 — 9:12am

Below is a delayed livestream of the royal commission proceedings, if you would like to make a submission to the inquiry click here.

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Disgraced former CFMEU leader John Setka - who was yesterday stripped of his union membership - once described an adviser to former premier Daniel Andrews as “a good asset to the union”, the Big Build royal commission has heard.

Counsel assisting Chris Young, KC, mentioned ex-staffer Matthew Toner this morning as he criticised the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) for its failure to produce documents appropriately to the commission as it explores the CFMEU’s disruption of the Gap Road level crossing removal.

Relevant text messages disclosed only on Tuesday referenced Toner in discussions about the troubled project, Young said.

The barrister did not tender the messages immediately as steps were still being taken to get evidence from Toner and former senior VIDA staffer Matthew Phelan.

Text messages have linked an adviser to former premier Daniel Andrews to the troubled Gap Road level-crossing removal, the Big Build royal commission has heard.

Counsel assisting Chris Young, KC, this morning said the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) had only disclosed the existence of text messages on Tuesday.

“Those messages included reference to the PPO, which we understand to be a reference to the premier’s private office, and some named individuals,” Young said.

“Steps are now being taken to secure evidence from those persons. For those reasons, I am not tendering those text messages now, but we will in due course.

“The two individuals are Mr Matthew Toner and Mr Matthew Phelan. Mr Toner was, as we understand it at the time, an adviser to the premier Daniel Andrews. Mr Phelan was the chief of staff to Corey Hannett, the director general of VIDA.”

Phelan’s subsequent role as Allan’s chief of staff when she was premier was not mentioned by Young.

Counsel assisting Chris Young, KC, has strongly criticised the government over its treatment of the commission and its requests for information.

Counsel assisting Chris Young, KC, is mounting a lengthy and strongly worded attack on the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) over unexplained redactions of relevant material it was compelled to provide to the Big Build royal commission.

As an example, Young took issue with redactions made to notes which VIDA executive Evan Tattersall took of a meeting around the time of disruption to the Gap Road level-crossing removal project.

“The first two bullet points that Mr Tattersall has taken notes of seem to be irrelevant. Look at the next one: ‘CFMEU driving some companies re: Aboriginal employment out of business because weren’t used’. That was redacted from what was originally provided to the commission. Unexplained,” Young said.

“That set of redactions shows that plainly relevant material was redacted from material provided to this commission. Who authorised the redaction of that section, and on what basis, remains unexplained.”

Counsel assisting Chris Young, KC, has opened today’s proceedings with a bit of a bang: he has taken issue with how the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) has provided documents to the royal commission.

He has shown the commissioner a document provided by VIDA that is heavily redacted.

“The document production protocol typically requires material to be given to the commission unredacted, highlighted with claims that are made for non-production,” Young said.

“This is not complying with that protocol.”

Below is a delayed livestream of the royal commission proceedings, if you would like to make a submission to the inquiry click here.

Shadow attorney-general James Newbury said allegations made over the first three days of hearings, including that businesses were threatened with black-bans on government projects unless they kowtowed to the CFMEU, “go straight to the heart of corruption”.

Speaking outside Parliament House on Thursday morning, Newbury said testimony from former union organiser Paul Tzimas that a former top union boss boasted of having “a direct line to Jacinta Allan’s office” was damning.

“Jacinta Allan’s office was the enforcer to see the CFMEU [got work] on these government work sites, and Jacinta Allan’s office was receiving briefs stating that having the CFMEU on these sites – and the decisions that they enforced – would see hundreds of millions of dollars in inflated costs,” he said.

“That’s how we have seen a $15 billion loss to corruption in Victoria because of allegations of state-sanctioned corruption.”

At yesterday’s hearing, a former CFMEU official claimed that a union boss boasted of having a “direct line to Jacinta Allan’s office” at a pivotal meeting with contractors who wanted to end a costly dispute on a rail project.

Former organiser Paul Tzimas spoke about a crucial meeting on June 7 in 2022, between the union and construction firm bosses from John Holland.

Here’s what he told the commission.

The first week of the commission’s hearings has focused on the $110 million Gap Road level crossing removal project in Sunbury.

Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve heard so far:

• Counsel assisting the commission Chris Young, KC, got the week rolling on Monday, noting that the most senior bureaucrats working for then-minister (and later the premier) Jacinta Allan had tried to warn her about the CFMEU’s conduct in 2022 and 2023. This raises questions about Allan’s public position that she was unaware until this masthead’s Building Bad series broke in 2024.
• On Tuesday, we heard from senior figures at construction giant John Holland about the gathering stoush at Gap Road in June 2022 and the problems the CFMEU’s conduct was causing. They told the hearing that a government official had warned that there was a view from “the minister’s office” that the company wouldn’t win work in Victoria if it couldn’t work with the CFMEU. They detailed a key meeting at the CFMEU’s headquarters on June 7 where one of the managers said a top official, Joe Myles, told them that giving in to the union’s demands would improve its chances of winning other projects, specifically the Melbourne Airport Rail Link. As Michael Bachelard noted, this was a big moment.
• The June 7 meeting loomed large again yesterday when former CFMEU organiser Paul Tzimas, the first union figure to testify, told the commission that Myles had boasted of a “direct line to Jacinta Allan’s office”. Tzimas, as the John Holland executives had recalled, said Myles had dangled the lure of work on the airport rail project if the company gave in to the CFMEU’s demands for its preferred traffic management and labour hire companies to be appointed to the project, as well as its own hand-picked, unelected health and safety representatives. Underworld figure Mick Gatto also got his first mention too, with Tzimas describing Gatto’s gift of a gold bracelet on a Carlton street.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the fourth day in this hearing block for the Royal Commission into the Integrity of Major Public and Civil Infrastructure Construction Projects in Victoria.