Victoria’s royal commission into corruption on major public construction projects holds its opening hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court next Wednesday, with former South Australian Supreme Court chief justice Christopher Kourakis running a $50 million inquiry that must report to the state government by August next year.
The ABC reported that the first sitting of the Royal Commission into the Integrity of Major Public and Civil Infrastructure Construction Projects in Victoria is likely to deal with the terms of reference and the inquiry’s next steps, before witnesses are called at later hearings.
That puts the opening day a little over two months out from a state election. The timeline for any hearings after Wednesday is unclear.
”Nothing is off limits”
Premier Ben Carroll called the royal commission in his first act as premier in July, promising an exhaustive inquiry into the corruption allegations “as soon as possible”. He released the terms of reference in August.
“The terms of reference are broad. They are expansive. Nothing is off limits,”
Carroll said at the time.
Those terms cover three things that matter to anyone who works on government jobs: the extent of corruption on major infrastructure projects, how well government bodies have overseen that work, and what contractors actually did to manage the risk on their own sites.
Carroll committed to the inquiry after replacing his predecessor Jacinta Allan, who had declined to call one despite internal pressure. He has since faced questions from the opposition about whether the commission is properly empowered to work out what the corruption has cost. Kourakis will decide who and what is relevant to his inquiries, including former premiers.
A $15 billion figure hanging over the sector
Anti-corruption barrister Geoffrey Watson has previously estimated corruption in Victoria’s construction sector cost state taxpayers up to $15 billion, the ABC reported on 16 September 2026. That’s the number the inquiry is effectively being asked to test.
Against it sits the commission’s own $50 million budget, which by now is buying a full-sized legal operation. In early September the commission announced it had appointed a chief executive and counsel assisting: senior public servant and administrator Emma Catford as chief executive, and senior barristers Chris Young and Christopher Carr as counsel assisting.
Kourakis said the appointees brought “deep experience” across administrative and public law.
According to the inquiry’s website, a schedule for public hearings will be published later. Hearings will be live streamed unless there’s a direction otherwise, so subbies who want to follow it won’t have to sit in the back of a courtroom in the CBD to do it.
What it means for a subbie on government work
The line in the terms of reference about “actions contractors took to mitigate risks” is the one worth reading twice if your ABN has been anywhere near a major public civil or infrastructure job in Victoria.
Royal commissions don’t just look at the top of the contractual chain. Site agreements, labour arrangements, who got on site and on whose say-so, variations, and how a head contractor policed its own supply chain are all the kind of material that ends up in a brief of evidence. The paperwork trail for those decisions sits with the people who signed it, which on a big civil job means tier-one contractors first and their subcontract packages behind them.
None of that starts next Wednesday. An opening hearing is procedural: terms of reference, how the commission will run, who is appearing. The evidence comes later, and the schedule for it hasn’t been published.
The more immediate effect is on pricing and procurement. Government clients tend to tighten their own compliance paperwork the moment an inquiry starts asking how well they oversaw the last round of projects, and that flows down as more auditing, more statutory declarations, and more time in the site office instead of on the tools. If you’re tendering on Victorian public infrastructure between now and August next year, budget for the admin.
What to watch
Three things. The publication of the public hearing schedule, which tells you whether the commission intends to sit through an election campaign or wait it out. The first witness list, which tells you how far down the contracting chain Kourakis intends to go. And the reporting deadline of August next year, which is the outside date for whatever recommendations come back on oversight of major projects.
Hearings are live streamed. If your business depends on Victorian government civil work, the stream is the cheapest market intelligence you’ll get all year.
Frequently asked questions
When does the Victorian construction corruption inquiry start?
The royal commission holds its opening hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court next Wednesday, though witnesses aren’t expected to be called until later hearings.
Who is running the royal commission?
Former South Australian Supreme Court chief justice Christopher Kourakis is the commissioner, with Emma Catford as chief executive and Chris Young and Christopher Carr as counsel assisting.
When must the commission report back?
Kourakis must report to the Victorian government by August next year.
Will the hearings be public?
Yes. According to the inquiry’s website, hearings will be live streamed unless the commission directs otherwise.
Sourced from ABC News. Original article.
