A leading construction company says CFMEU‑driven disruption wiped out about 55 per cent of productivity on key parts of Brisbane's Cross River Rail, adding roughly $580 million to its costs on internal estimates.
Cross River Rail was subjected to a sustained campaign by the CFMEU designed to inflict reputational and other harm on the project and key personnel, senior counsel assisting Eddy Gisonda said.
The inquiry - examining alleged past wrongdoing by the construction union in Queensland - resumed on Tuesday amid upheaval following CFMEU administrator Mark Irving KC's resignation.
The commission on Tuesday moved its focus to Cross River Rail, calling CPB Contractors general manager Vince Sanfilippo, who oversees the construction company's Queensland and Papua New Guinea operations.
Mr Sanfilippo said CPB's primary union stakeholder in Queensland had long been the Australian Workers' Union and the company had not had a close working relationship with the CFMEU for more than a decade.
Relations became "particularly challenging" once work began on Cross River Rail, with negotiations involving the AWU on one side and the Building Trades Group (BTG), including the CFMEU, on the other.
Talks led by CFMEU powerbroker Jade Ingham were marked by "bullish, fairly aggressive" behaviour, raised voices and walk‑outs, the inquiry heard.
The BTG pushed for a single project‑wide enterprise agreement covering all works, including tunnelling, and for all subcontractors to be lifted to those conditions.
CPB believed conceding would have "significant cost and productivity impacts" and could breach the federal building code, jeopardising eligibility for Commonwealth‑funded work.
The union also appeared to be seeking "some level of input or control" over which subcontractors were engaged.
To break the deadlock before the financial close on June 30, the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority moved negotiations onto what it called "neutral ground" and proposed a standing consultative committee to oversee information about subcontractors and upcoming work.
Mr Sanfilippo said the arrangement was "unusual" and gave unions an "early insight and opportunity" to pressure subcontractors or influence which firms were chosen.
He also expressed surprise at the level of involvement by the delivery authority and the then Labor government, which had a representative at the negotiations.
The inquiry also heard CPB wrote to the authority about its efforts to comply with government best practice principles, but was told its letter "was not meeting the government's expectations".
Instead, CPB was offered a "suggested alternative" version – emailed from authority executive Matthew Martyn-Jones's private Hotmail account – which more closely aligned with the union's demands.
Mr Sanfilippo said both the content and the use of a private email account were troubling, telling the inquiry the Hotmail delivery "raised our interest" and prompted him to tell colleagues: "This doesn't feel right."
Senior Labor MP Grace Grace will also be represented at the inquiry after being granted leave to appear.
The MP has denied allegations that, as industrial relations minister, she threatened to terminate the contract for a $1.6 billion Toowoomba bypass project in 2018 if the developer did not work with the union.
