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The underbelly construction crackdown: Why was Mick Gatto really arrested?
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- [00:05]
A
When one of Australia's most infamous Victorian gangland figures was arrested last week over an alleged traffic infringement, it raised some eyebrows given Mick Gado's centrality in the construction sector. Was this the Victorian police pulling its straws in some last ditch attempt to crack down on suspected corruption in the industry? I'm Samantha Salinger Morris and you're listening to the Morning edition from the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. Today, Investigative reporter Nick McKenzie on whether this arrest was, as Mick Gado asserts, a load of crap or if it's illustrative of a new dedication by police to clean up an industry that's been rife with alleged corruption for decades. It's June 9th. Nick, welcome back to the podcast.
- [00:53]
B
Great to be with you again.
- [00:55]
A
What happened last week?
- [00:57]
B
Well, it was a fairly sensational event in some respects. That was the raiding of the gangland veteran identity Mick Gatto by the Victoria police's task force, Hawker specialist task force set up to investigate a crime and corruption in the building sector. Huge media event. There were people camped outside of Gatto's home. He was arrested, taken away, but then released without charge. His wife Cheryl was also interdicted by police, but also not charged. To breaking news and police have sensationally arrested underworld figure Mick Gatto and his wife at their Mount Martha home. Police say they swooped on the Fortress Light property following fresh allegations of serious and violent criminal behaviour. The 70 year old spent the day being interviewed by police investigating corruption on Victoria's Big Build project. But despite all the colour and noise, when you really boil it down, people are now asking, what was it all about? If he's not been charged, why were the police there? And Ganno himself has sought to dismiss it, to say it's a massive storm in a teacup. It was over some sort of speeding fine issue and it's the police, according to Gatto, being heavy handed and carrying on without much purpose. Now, I don't think that's the truth, but what is really going on? That's the really interesting question.
- [02:19]
A
Okay, so we'll get into whether this is a storm in a teacup in just a moment, but what are the police actually investigating more specifically here?
- [02:26]
B
Well, task Force Hawk was set up after our reporting almost two years ago. Now that revealed how lots of major construction sites, especially taxpayer funded state government, federal government sites, had been infiltrated by barkie gangs, by organised crime figures, sometimes in league with suspected corrupt union figures, officials, sometimes in league or in partnership with companies doing the wrong thing. A massive, massive crime and political scandal that is still rolling out in Victoria almost every other day. The police were called on by the state government and thanks to the reporting to start investigating how these criminal figures had entered the construction sector and were making vast amounts of money. But those identities of those criminal figures remain in dispute. There has been some arrests, but largely for, for non serious offending. There has been some extortion and arson type arrests as well. Now Mick Gatto's been a central figure in this ongoing controversy, but he's not been charged with anything. He denies all wrongdoing and really his place in this whole construction industry saga or scandal remains very, very murky.
- [03:39]
A
And why is it such a big deal that Mick Gaddo is implicated in this particular investigation? You know, tell us, I guess just a bit about who Mick Gado is.
- [03:48]
B
Well, Mick Gaddo is arguably the most infamous member of Victorian's underworld. He gained his level of great infamy in the early 2000s. He was right in the thick of the gangland wars. His friends were getting murdered, left, right, center, other gangland figures. And then he shot dead a hitman called Andrew Benji Venueman. He was charged with murder and then cleared of that murder charge on the grounds of self defense and became a person extremely well known in Victoria because of that. But he's also been very well known because he's been a fixer in the construction sector for going on 30 years now, making money, we don't know how much from construction companies who hire him to mediate with the cfbu, the construction union, to mediate with other building companies to get onto key projects. Why is this a problem? Well, it's not healthy that construction companies pay a gangland figure who's got no discernible industrial relations qualifications, HR skills, business acumen. They pay him because he's a gangland figure of notoriety. And to have a figure like that wheeling and dealing in the construction sector is deeply unhealthy for that sector. But he's entrenched. We know he's made a lot of money. We know he cuts lots of deals with the construction union. And what's been really problematic about this is over the last five or six years these deals have involved major state government projects. So boil that all down. You've got a notorious gangland figure, albeit someone who's not been convicted of any serious criminal offending in recent history, who denies all wrongdoing, but a major gangland identity getting a hell of a lot of money by steering companies onto government projects. So this is all underwritten by the taxpayer with the help of allegedly corrupt people, mostly former people from the construction union. A really ugly corruption stain in Victoria that is unresolved, abounds with questions and there's been no full accountability about any of it.
- [05:46]
A
Okay, so what has Mick Gado himself said about this arrest then?
- [05:49]
B
I think we can say it in the word bullshit. He's just said it's, there's nothing to see here. This is the police just harassing him. And the, the offending on the search warrant linked to some sort of speeding fines according to him. Nothing to see here. But yeah, that's not the case. Mick Gatto. It's his networks that are at the heart of some of the most serious allegations of wrongdoing in the construction sector. So I think a reasonable person would suggest the police might have used speeding fines or some sort of dishonesty around speeding offending to get through the front door, but are much more likely looking at something else, something far deeper and more sinister in respect of Mr. Gatto. Now, of course he's not been charged, I'm not suggesting as guilty of anything. And he of course absolutely expresses his innocence. This is all a beat up according to him. But the police clearly weren't there to pick up some minor offending. There's something else going on.
- [06:46]
A
After the break.
- [06:47]
B
We have a premier in Victoria who won't put a figure on the alleged corruption, how much money, won't estimate how much money's gone from her big build to criminal entities or has been abused through other misappropriation, rorting or wrongdoing.
- [07:07]
A
Okay, but let's just get into this for a minute. You know, why arrest such a high profile figure such as Mick Gatto over an alleged driving infringement? I mean, a layperson might listen to that and go, God, that looks like police just pulling at straws when they don't have enough. This is just what I'm assuming a layperson might think, because I certainly think, you know, it seems a bit strange. So what does it suggest to you?
- [07:28]
B
A layperson might also think back to the famous case of Al Capone, the US Organized crime figure. Now, I'm not saying Mikado's Al Capone, but Al Capone is very famously arrested for tax offending despite authorities knowing he was involved in vast amounts of bootlegging and other organized crime activities. We know that the modus operandi of Task Force Hawk has been to disrupt, deter and detect. Now, all those things don't necessarily lead to or mean or involve serious criminal offending. It can mean finding people who are seen to cause a noxious influence in the construction sector and doing things that disrupt their activities, that bring them under scrutiny, that say to the rest of the gangland or criminal underworld, this guy's red hot right now, Stay away. It might be about getting someone a suspect's phone. You go in there for alleged offence number one, it might be a non serious offence, but you grab the phone as part of that investigation, you find a far deeper set of information pointing to some other conduct. So what is Mikado actually been up to? The allegation is this, that there is a, an unhealthy market, almost like a cartel type market set up in the construction sector where if you pay Mick Gatto and you get access to Mick Gatto's friends in the construction union and in big building companies, then you get access to government sites. But if you don't, you don't get access. Now that is not healthy because it ramps up price. It leads to money entering the gangland sector, which Mikado's been a part of for most of his life. It's an ugly and potentially corrupt environment and we're paying for taxpayers are funding these extra payments that go to people like Mick Gatto. Now there's so much intrigue around which companies are paying him. He won't say. How much money is he getting? Well, he's brushed it off, we don't really know. But there's enough evidence to know this. There is money going from the Victorian government's big build, its major taxpayer funded rail and road infrastructure project. There is money going from there to Mikado and Mikado's taking this money to help companies get on these taxpayer funded jobs. Now, to have public sector projects infiltrated, if you will, by a gangland figure like Mick Gaddo is a terrible look for the Victorian government. Deeply concerning when it comes to the use of public money and the potential for corruption.
- [09:47]
A
Well, let's go to the Victorian government then, because these raids, because it wasn't just a raid on Mick Gaddo's home, it was also the raid on his associate Nick Merrick's home. These came came after Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen announced that there'd be an investigation into improving powers for the state's anti corruption watchdog to examine wrongdoing in the construction industry. Now she's been criticized for not acting sooner. So why is that and is that fair?
- [10:11]
B
Well, there's the overlapping part of this, which is there is serious evidence and grave concern about the corrupting of Victoria's construction sector. Now the police have A role to play in investigating that. But they're limited to looking at alleged criminal offending. It's a very narrow lane. In the case of Mick Gatto, we know they've gone through the door, according to him, over some sort of dishonesty, alleged dishonesty around traffic offending. Although they're no doubt looking at a range of other things. His associate Nick Marich, on that search warrant, it makes clear that Marich is a suspect or a person of interest in an alleged arson, firebombing, attack on a construction company director's home property. Of course there's no guilty finding there, simply a suspicion by police and Marich has denied a wrongdoing. But the police looking at these very distinct narrow criminal allegations. But there's a huge amount of alleged grey corruption which may not even be criminally unlawful. It might be civilly unlawful or simply plain wrong, but it may not fall in the police view. And that's why the government says, okay, well we understand there's a huge amount of public concern around this. We have a corruption watchdog, it's called the ibac, the independent broad based anti corruption commission in Victoria. It does not have the powers to look at the abuse of money on these big taxpayer funded jobs. And for years people have been saying government do something about it, give it the powers. So under unrelenting and huge pressure, the labor premier, Jacinta Allen finally acted to give IBAC these powers. But there's a catch. It won't get the powers until the end of 2027. So that's 18 months away and it's a year after the next election, which is in November, this November in Victoria. And even then we don't know what powers that's really going to get. It looked a lot like a handball down the road political solution for a PR problem. And what we fact is right now, Victoria's anti corruption watchdog isn't getting to the bottom of how much in taxpayer dollars are going to people like Mick Addo and others on major government projects. And that's a problem for Victoria.
- [12:09]
A
So Nick, just to wrap up then, I've got to ask you, just zooming out a little bit, it's been two years since your stories on this broader alleged corruption in the construction industry were first published. So do you feel like you're more at the beginning or at the end of this saga?
- [12:25]
B
Well, I think it's fair to say we're right in the middle of it. I mean it's taken two years to get a really good grasp as A journalist, investigative journalist, about who the players are, how the money moves, which companies are involved, which gangland crews, which baki gangs, which union officials former and serving. I feel like at the moment there's a huge amount of information which has not come out and it's our job to put it out once we test and corroborate it, give it to the public so they can start to make some informed decisions about all that we don't know and all that we should know about this mega scandal. So, I mean, we're not at the beginning, we're midway through, but there's a hell of a lot more work for journalists to do. And why is that? We shouldn't be doing it. This is the job of an anti corruption agency and frankly, it's the job of the labor government of Victoria. But at the moment, we have a premier in Victoria who won't put a figure on the alleged corruption, how much money, won't estimate how much money has gone from her big build to criminal entities or has been abused through other misappropriation, rorting or wrongdoing. We have a premier in Victoria who won't even acknowledge the fact of corruption on these mega projects, even though we're well past that when it comes to the evidence that's already out there. So we've got a job to do and we'll keep on doing it.
- [13:37]
A
Well, thanks so much, Nick, once again for your time.
- [13:40]
B
Great to be with you. Foreign.
- [13:55]
A
Victoria are in the midst of a data investment explosion that is now larger than last decade's mining boom, injecting tens of billions of dollars into the country. Police are troubled by the emergence of the SKS and other military rifles in Sydney's underworld because the power that these guns carry gives gangsters the capacity for mass murder. And two different Australian measures of child rearing estimate that raising a child today costs as much as a small mortgage. And that's before you put education on the tab. You can read more@the age.comau or smh.com Today's episode was produced by Josh Towers. Our executive producer is Tammy Mills. And our podcasts are overseen by Lisa Muxworthy and Tom McKendrick. If you like our show, follow the Morning edition and leave a review for us on Apple or Spotify. Thanks for listening.