Women in Construction Firm With Criminal Ties Wins Contracts on Victoria Big Build Projects

A labour hire company that secured contracts as a supplier of female workers on Victoria’s Big Build infrastructure program is owned by a man convicted of domestic violence offences and has employed managers with criminal histories including drug trafficking and further family violence charges.

The company, Women in Construction, supplied dozens of female workers to the North East Link project and at its height provided up to 250 workers across multiple rail and road projects, generating an estimated $2.5 million a week. It has publicly aligned itself with the state government’s gender equity policy and the CFMEU union, which helped develop the policy requiring major contractors to prioritise hiring women.

It said the company took directives from bikie gang leaders on whom to employ and separately engaged with gangland figure Mick Gatto in an attempt to win contracts from a subcontractor. Women in Construction’s owner and founder, Luke Ellery, was convicted in Frankston Magistrates’ Court in late 2019 of two counts of persistently breaching a family violence order.

Two months before those convictions, corporate documents show the company was created. Ellery became sole shareholder and director in 2022 as the firm expanded on Big Build sites. He sold a five-bedroom house for $2.65 million last year.

The CFMEU directed Ellery to appoint Wayne “Junior” Carter as general manager after Carter’s release from an eight-year prison sentence for his role in a large drug trafficking syndicate in Queensland. Carter recruited women through contacts at bikie clubs, strip clubs and the underworld.

He is currently facing family violence-related charges in the Magistrates’ Court and in February pleaded guilty to possessing methamphetamine and a prohibited weapon. Carter’s replacement as manager was selected by Luke Collier, a former CFMEU official jailed for assault who has faced separate accusations of domestic violence.

Industry sources told the newspaper that Collier requested his girlfriend be employed as senior manager and given use of a Range Rover. Women in Construction is aligned with Rock Solid Civil, another Ellery-owned business that also worked on Big Build projects.

One of Rock Solid’s founding owners, Daniel John Baxter, was jailed in May 2022 for bashing his former partner.

Thursday the newspaper asked Premier Jacinta Allan why the company was able to win work on projects she oversaw as minister, why it remained on the program, and whether money had reached criminals. A Victorian government spokesperson said the government had no tolerance for illegal behaviour and pointed to strengthened powers for the Labour Hire Authority.

“It is working – with more than 88 criminal charges laid and 151 construction company licences now cancelled,” the spokesperson said. Corruption expert Geoffrey Watson, SC, hired by the CFMEU administrator to examine union corruption, described the situation as a serious problem.

He said two years after the premier vowed to clean up the sector, further issues had been left to the media to expose. Ellery declined to answer questions but texted the newspaper on Thursday afternoon that he had lost a Big Build contract worth over ten million dollars because of its inquiries.