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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I'm Daniel James, and you're listening to 7am. In Melbourne, few names carry the weight of Mick Gatto. For decades, he's been known as a survivor of the gangland wars, a man whose influence has stretched from the city's underworld into the heart of the construction industry. This week, police raided his home.
Chapter 2: Who is Mick Gatto and why is he significant in Melbourne's underworld?
Gato and his wife were arrested, then released without charge. He says it's all over a driving infringement. Police say they're investigating alleged financial offences. But the raid has landed in the middle of a much larger fight over corruption, intimidation and alleged underworld influence inside Victoria's building sector.
Today, investigative reporter Nick McKenzie on Mick Gatto, corruption in the construction industry and the reckoning now facing the state's big build. It's Friday, June 5. Nick, for those who aren't familiar with Mick Gatto, can you give us a quick reminder of how big a deal he is in the Melbourne underworld?
Well, he's arguably Australia's best-known gangland figure. He's certainly Melbourne's best-known gangland figure. Came to massive attention in the gangland wars.
Melbourne is once again facing the spectre of gangland war with a crime family patriarch shot dead in front of his home. And just hours later, two other men were gunned down. The double fatal shooting happened...
Initially, his friends were getting knocked off left, right and centre. His best mate, Mario Condello, was murdered in an execution outside his house. Graeme Kinneborough, the famous criminal, a.k.a.
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Chapter 3: What recent events led to Mick Gatto's home being raided?
the Munster, was also shot dead, executed at his house. And there was a period where I think Gatto thought it was coming for him. He was then... confronted, according to Gatto's story, at the back of a restaurant by the most famous gangland hitman Andrew Benji Veneman. There was a scuffle. Gatto grabbed a pistol, which he said Veneman had, and he shot Veneman dead.
Gatto was charged with murder, and that became a very, very significant case. But Gatto beat that charge on self-defense grounds.
For a story that's gripped Melbourne, today provided another riveting chapter. Underworld figure Dominic Gatto acquitted of murder. Thank God for the jury system. That's all I can say.
So he's known for the gangland wars and his involvement in those and that of his so-called Carlton crew. But really what he's done for the last 30 years is play his trade as the best known gangland fixer in Victoria's construction sector.
So this week, police raided the home of Mick and his wife, arrested them, then released them without charge. What do we know about what's being investigated?
Well, two years ago, we began writing a series of stories. We're still writing those stories two years later. It was called the Building Bad series. It was about allegations of significant organised crime and corruption in the construction sector across Australia, but especially in Victoria. And as a result of those still ongoing reports, the Victorian government responded.
The Victoria Police responded and launched a task force called Task Force Hawk, a specialist task force looking at wrongdoing in the building sector. One of its most obvious targets since its inception, of course, is Mick Gatto because he's a gangland figure in the construction sector doing his wheeling and dealing. He was raided by Task Force Hawk. What's it all about?
Well, I think the paperwork is in relation to, according to the police, allegations of financial crime. Mick Gatto and his lawyer have both said it's to do with speeding tickets or infringement to
The only thing I can say is when they use 20 or 30 police over a speeding fine, this country is in trouble.
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Chapter 4: What allegations are being investigated regarding Mick Gatto?
It's a toothpick.
Anyway, I've got to go. Take care, guys. Cheers.
Cheers.
But we also know this. We know this because we've reported it now many times. Gatto is on the payroll of many of the construction companies in Melbourne and some interstate. I'm not saying it's unlawful. That would be defamatory. But I am saying anyone who's a little bit sceptical would wonder why anyone would need to pay a gangland figure to operate on a major construction site in Victoria.
Yeah, if we go to that a little bit, Nick, you've done heaps of reporting on this. Can you tell us about what Geoffrey Watson SC described as the ghetto extortion model?
Well, so Geoffrey Watson SC, corruption buster of some repute. He used to be the council assisting at the New South Wales Anti-Corruption ICAC Commission. He was hired by the CFMEU administrator to investigate corruption in the CFMEU. And what Watson says in the recent commission of inquiry in Queensland, this is another inquiry looking at the CFMEU.
He says the Gatto business model, effectively Gatto is in cahoots with corrupt or dodgy CFMEU officials.
The Victorian CFMEU under John Secker was a crime organisation.
Gatto says to a company, you hire me and if there's a drama on a building site, I'll sort it out because I've got connections at the CFMEU.
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Chapter 5: How has Mick Gatto influenced the construction industry in Victoria?
Police are obviously investigating whether Marek has any connection to that. I'm not saying Marek's involved in that, but the police are curious as to what he knows about these firebombings and they raided his property just a few days before Gatto's. All unanswered questions. I guess I'll boil it right down. What does it all mean?
It means there's organised crime, there's gangland operations still happening as we speak in the building sector, and there's a real struggle between law enforcement and the dark side at the moment that's still playing out.
The raids come after an announcement from Victorian Premier Jacinda Allen this week. that a panel of experts will be looking at boosting powers of the anti-corruption watchdog IBAC so it can look into corruption in the construction industry. Do you think that's enough when it comes to tackling this issue?
The Victorian Premier, as you say, announced that our anti-corruption body in Victoria will get new powers maybe in 18 months to follow the money from major government projects to gangland figures. It looks a lot like a delaying tactic because it should be in place, not now, it should have been in place two years ago when this stuff all started coming out.
It's much needed and it's not yet in place. So as we speak, there's no anti-corruption agency that's on the job looking at the way Gangland figures, bikey gangs have infiltrated government projects. Why does this matter? I mean, this is the money of your listeners. Anyone listening to this podcast is funding those projects and by extension funding the gangland figures that are feeding off them.
It's leading to increases ultimately in house prices and rail projects, road projects. So not enough is clearly being done. A real issue is lots of the dodgy behaviour in the construction industry, it might be unlawful and certainly unethical, or corrupt, but it may not be criminal.
Bikey gang member gets a sweetheart job, care of union corruption on a big government project and hires half his bikey gang as traffic controllers on 300 grand a year. It's certainly corrupt. It may not be criminal. The act of nepotism, it's a grade corruption. Cops can't investigate that, but an anti-corruption agency can if it has the power.
And the problem in Victoria right now is no agency has the power to investigate this sort of conduct.
And finally, Nick, I've listened and read a number of interviews with you in relation to the corruption on the, or the alleged corruption on the big build. And it seems to me that you've become more and more frustrated with the inaction when it comes to the multiple allegations flying about. Am I right?
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