A leading contractor on major government infrastructure projects,including federal police facilities at Sydney’s new international airport,allegedly orchestrated a terrifying campaign of mafia-style attacks to suppress a worker-exploitation scandal.

An interim inquiry by the CFMEU administration outlines suspicions that Future Form,which is also a key sponsor of the Canterbury Bulldogs NRL club,may have been involved in firebombings and repeated threats aimed at the family of a veteran union official investigating the firm over systemic worker mistreatment at the federal and state-funded rail project servicing the new Badgerys Creek airport.

Future Form has denied all allegations of wrongdoing,although confidential communications and source testimony obtained by this masthead raise serious concerns about the firm’s integrity.

The Future Form allegations outlined in the provisional CFMEU report mark a major turning point in theBuilding Bad scandal because a major company,rather than the union,is implicated in serious,albeit strongly disputed allegations,of involvement in unlawful and violent activity – many months after the Albanese government’s intervention in the industry.

The claims come amid separate calls for far greater government intervention to fight organised crime in the construction industry,fresh revelations of an unrelated firebombing spree in Melbourne – including a shocking attack on a company owner’s home – and a pledge from Queensland Premier David Crisafulli that his state’s royal commission will target crooked companies as well as the CFMEU.

Future Form said the union administration’s claims about its links to standover activity and worker exploitation were “entirely false and without foundation”,saying a “refusal to compromise our integrity” had triggered “baseless attacks”.

“We look forward to clearing our name and will fully co-operate with authorities to do so,” the firm’s managing director,Nabil Hafza,said in a statement.

Administration chief investigator Geoffrey Watson,SC,is yet to interview any Future Form personnel,a step which needs to occur before his provisional report’s conclusions are finalised and tabled in parliament. The investigation was also unable to speak to other key people central to the allegations.

CFMEU NSW executive officer Michael Crosby said he was personally convinced that Future Form was “responsible for the attacks on our organiser”,including a firebombing outside the man’s home and demands with menace allegedly made through a de facto relative.

The interim report outlined suspicions the reason a veteran union organiser and his family were repeatedly and violently targeted over the past year was probably that he was probing allegedly “corrupt conduct by Future Form” and the firm was suspected of seeking to “prevent that … from coming to light”.

“A well-liked CFMEU organiser and his family have been attacked,” Watson wrote in his interim report. “The risk is so great that the CFMEU is currently providing security for two of its organisers and their families. It is obvious that those behind these attacks are dangerous.”

The suspicions outlined in Watson’s interim report have not been tested to the standard required in a court,and this masthead is not suggesting they have been proven,only that they have been alleged by the union administration and several sources.

The suspected “corruption” referred to by Watson involves concerns that Future Form engaged in systemic worker exploitation,denying employees lawful rates of pay,superannuation and income protection entitlements.

One mechanism Future Form is suspected of using is “sham contracting”,an unlawful practice that involves treating employees as subcontractors.

The firm is also accused by the union of major safety breaches at the airport site,exposing workers to possible harm.

Documents seen by this masthead suggest that on one site at which Future Form was engaging dozens of workers,its workers’ insurance records suggested it had just 11 full time rather than the dozens working.

Watson said the records indicated that these 11 workers were also apparently earning “less than $65,000 per worker annually” or less than half of what they should have been paid under the company’s CFMEU agreement.

According to information provided to Watson and Crosby,the targeted CFMEU organiser began to suspect unlawful workplace behaviour by Future Form in October. Shortly after this,his suburban Sydney home was attacked late at night while he was away and his young children and wife slept inside.

CCTV from October,obtained by this masthead and60 Minutes,shows two masked and hooded men daub the property with profanity-filled graffiti denouncing the organiser as a paedophile and “CFMEU dog”.

About an hour later,the men returned to cut the home’s power supply,plunging it into darkness.

Three months later,when the organiser forced a temporary halt to work after he uncovered further suspected serious safety and employment breaches involving Future Form on the Western Sydney Airport site,he was allegedly yelled at by a company delegate,who purportedly said:“You hate us – you are biased against us!”

On the same day,January 30,CEO Nabil Hafza also sent increasingly frustrated texts to the CFMEU organiser,including messages that said “need this resolved right now” and “need this shit resolved”.

CCTV obtained by this masthead and60 Minutes reveals that after midnight on February 1,the union official was sleeping inside with his family when two masked men covered his car and boat in petrol before torching both.

Crosby said the attacks sent a message to “back off” and had scared “the living daylights out of the organiser’s family”. It also led him to stall his Future Form investigation.

But in late June,the organiser ordered an audit of Future Form by issuing “right of entry” notices on the terminal site.

“He got a call from workers on the site saying the place was a complete mess,it was really unsafe,And frankly,to his credit,he thought,“OK,I’ve gotta do something about that,” Crosby said.

Watson’s interim report outlines allegations that a day after the audit notice was issued,the organiser was unexpectedly called by his de facto relative,also a construction worker,who said he had been “jumped” in a car park by several men who he said claimed to represent Future Form.

According to Watson’s report,the organiser was told:“There’s a carload of them. They followed me from home. They know where your family is at – they say they know they are at the dentist. They even know where I work on the weekend.”

The interim report details allegations the organiser was ordered by the men who confronted his de facto relative to cease investigating Future Form and apologise to its managing director.

“Tell him to ring Nabil,” the organiser was allegedly told.

“He is scared so he rings Nabil[Hafza],apologises,says he’s backing down,” Crosby told this masthead,revealing the organiser had recounted the alleged incident in tears.

In his statement to Watson,the organiser said he told Hafza he was sorry for “everything that’s happened”.

The organiser claimed that Hafza then thanked him for agreeing to leave Future Form alone,telling him:“Thank you. I care about you. You know we are family;you are my brother. I love you. It didn’t have to come to this. We warned you twice before. You should’ve listened to the warnings. You should’ve understood what they meant.” This recollection of the conversation has been denied.

Phone and email records obtained by this masthead and60 Minutes confirm that Hafza and the organiser spoke at 10.19 am on June 26 in a call lasting just under a minute.

This masthead has not been able to verify what was said in the phone call,but Watson also interviewed a second senior union official who says he heard both sides of the conversation and also claimed he heard the organiser apologise to Hafza.

The second official,whom this masthead is not naming due to safety concerns,said he heard the organiser tell Hafza he was sorry and,“It won’t happen again.” He said he then heard Hafza say:“I know,I love you,mate.”

Documents seen by this masthead also show the organiser’s Future Form inspection notice was withdrawn by the official five minutes after he spoke to Hafza,at 10.24 am.

After Hafza issued a statement dismissing all claims of unlawful activity,this masthead sought to further question him about the specific “demands by menace” allegations made by the organiser,but he did not respond.

Crosby is a cleanskin union leader with no building industry experience and was appointed to lead the CFMEU’s embattled NSW branch eight weeks ago. He said the organiser had now left the union.

On Friday,after he led a series of lightning workplace raids on Future Form sites,Crosby released a statement saying he was “confident that Future Form are guilty of engaging a significant number of sham contractors on the Western Sydney Airport site”.

“We are continuing to assess the exact level of underpayment of superannuation and redundancy scheme payments. It is likely that we will identify well over a million dollars in underpayments,” he claimed.

Future Form works on some of the nation’s biggest and most prestigious taxpayer projects,including the Australian War Memorial redevelopment and the metro line to Australia’s newest international airport,which the NSW government boasts as the largest public-private partnership in the state’s history.

Other top-tier builders have engaged Future Form on major projects,including Multiplex on its 31-storey apartment tower in Margaret Street,Brisbane,and its beachfront reconstruction in Manly,Sydney.

Mirvac has enlisted the company on a 55-storey office tower in Sydney’s CBD and more recently on an $830 million residential project in West Pennant Hills. Both builders said they were not aware of any material safety or compliance issues with Future Form on their sites.

In his interim report,Watson said it was suspected that Future Form was previously one of multiple companies that “enjoyed inappropriate favouritism from Darren Greenfield”,the corrupt ex-CFMEU boss who was sacked last year after the Building Bad scandal first broke and who separatelyrecently admitted to taking bribesfrom a Chinese building firm.

Watson’s report cited two examples in which Greenfield directed his fellow union officials to leave Future Form alone,despite concerns about its treatment of workers.

A source close to the company said Future Form workers were engaged through different companies and that only a small minority would get paid the rate under the CFMEU enterprise agreement. Many were paid under ABNs,the source,who could not be identified for fear of reprisals,claimed.

In his interview with this masthead and60 Minutes,Crosby revealed Future Form was just one of several companies that the union believed were prospering on government sites despite concerns about their integrity or their links to suspected serious criminality.

He outlined similar concerns in a letter he sent several major federal and state government infrastructure contractors last week and in which he described in general terms how ethical builders were being excluded from work from the NSW government because contracts were awarded to “builders who cut corners” or companies that undercut their market “through the use of money-laundering”.

Crosby,speaking generally,also said the union was planning a lobbying campaign aimed at the Minns’ NSW government to prevent major government projects hosting subcontractors with criminal connections.

“We will use all the lobbying power we might have in ensuring that the NSW government adjusts its procurement practices … I am concerned at the degree to which criminal gangs have infiltrated the industry,” he said.

“We can only have any success to the extent that the industry as a whole mounts a concerted effort to stamp out the use of violence and intimidation as an integral part of the gangs’ business model.”

In an interview,Crosby also said it beggared belief that Future Form was a subcontractor building the federal police’s new operations hub at Western Sydney Airport at the same time the agency was ostensibly combatting alleged unlawful activity in the building industry.

In a statement,the AFP said it has “no involvement in the selection or management of builders (or subcontractors) at the Western Sydney International Airport”.

The federal police has a small team of about three investigators probing unlawful conduct in the building industry,a figure state law enforcement officials told this masthead was laughable but which the AFP said could be expanded as needed.

In contrast,Victoria Police’s Taskforce Hawk has about nine detectives probing alleged corruption and crime in the construction sector.

Queensland and NSW have no police taskforces,despiterepeated pleas from the CFMEU administration for greater law enforcement help.

The concerns about the NSW industry and Minns’ government projects mirror allegations levelled at Victorian Labor by the CFMEU administrator’s chief investigator –that its Big Build scheme had become a feeding ground for bikie gangs.

This masthead can also separately reveal that police in Melbourne have uncovered CCTV of a terrifying firebombing in early April of cars at a major Victorian construction firm owner’s home as a young family slept inside.

It is one of more than 20 unsolved gangland-style attacks this masthead has identified across Australia targeting building-sector players since late 2023 – including the suspected torching of the business premises of the ex-wife of former union boss John Setka. Setka is not accused of having any involvement in the fire and his ex-wife could not be reached for comment.

The firebombings include many in the months after the Albanese government moved to clean up the industry in the wake oflast year’s initial Building Bad revelations,which revealed widespread allegations of intimidation and misuse of public money,with authorities so far unable to stop the attacks or identify perpetrators.

In a statement,Victoria Police saidinvestigators from Hawk were working with the arson squad to probe potential leads in connection to the Melbourne attack in April involving the torching of two cars in the driveway of the family home of the owner of a major construction company.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli told this masthead that hisstate’s upcoming royal commission-style inquiry was the only way to expose the rot in the building industry and that it would probe companies suspected of engaging in unlawful behaviour,including Future Form.

“The commission of inquiry won’t be one-sided,” he said,adding his government would look to abolish the CFMEU. “I don’t see how they can have a place in a modern Queensland. I don’t believe they are able to be reformed.”

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