Major infrastructure projects carried out under 12 years of Victoria's Labor government are under the microscope, as a royal commission investigates alleged corruption.
The first week of hearings have delved into what Jacinta Allan as transport infrastructure minister knew about an alleged union takeover of a level crossing removal project.
The inquiry heard contractors believed her office had directed them to "bend the knee" to the CFMEU.
Melburnians were in a fourth COVID lockdown under then-premier Daniel Andrews when drama on one of his government's level crossing removals reached fever pitch.
Sunbury locals would have noticed their train line was out of action due to 24/7 works to put a road under the tracks, but they couldn't have known how badly the project was going.
From April 2022, officials from the Construction Forestry and Maritime Employees' Union (CFMEU) had begun regularly entering the Gap Road job site in Melbourne's north to raise safety concerns.
In the first week of June alone, union officials entered the site 31 times.
On June 6, all work stopped while union officials were on site.
With time and money on the line, project managers went to CFMEU headquarters the next day in search of an urgent solution.
The CFMEU had demanded non-CFMEU workers on site be swapped for preferred hired labour, at extra cost to…
