Victoria’s state election campaign will be punctuated by the hearings of the royal commission into Big Build corruption, the inquiry having revealed construction companies, industrial fixers and former premier Jacinta Allan are already in its sights.

Commissioner Chris Kourakis promised on Wednesday, the first sitting day of the Royal Commission into the Integrity of Major Public and Civil Infrastructure Construction Projects in Victoria, to leave no stone unturned.

In a statement of intent, cabinet-in-confidence documents were tabled in the first hour of the hearing which showed Allan was warned three years ago about organised crime and serious misconduct on the Big Build.

Speaking at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court before the inquiry finds a more permanent home, Kourakis outlined the intention of the royal commission and heard opening submissions from lawyers assisting it.

No witnesses were called, but it was revealed secret hearings had already been held to help inform the direction of investigations, and that the first public bloc of interviews would take place in November – in the middle of the election campaign.

Lawyers assisting the commission and Kourakis said they did not want to follow in the footsteps of previous inquiries which exposed wrongdoing in the sector but failed to fix the factors that enabled that to happen. They made it clear that people at the top of government and their decisions would be scrutinised alongside builders, unions and bureaucrats.

As part of these initial submissions, counsel assisting the commission, Chris Young, KC, tendered a briefing addressed to Allan, when she was the transport infrastructure minister, dated June 21, 2023.

It was the same document this masthead revealed in July which warned Allan that the Big Build she was overseeing was being taken over by a lawless CFMEU, that this could cause major cost blowouts, and bikies and criminals had reportedly infiltrated taxpayer-funded projects.

Young noted the space for Allan’s signature was blank. A spokesperson for the former premier said she was not aware of this brief when The Age reported it.

“Whether, when, and how its contents reach the former premier are questions this commission will examine, and the former premier will have every opportunity to respond,” Young said.

A second document, a related ministerial briefing for Allan dated the same day, was written by the same four senior government bureaucrats, but this was signed by the minister. Young said the core message of this three-page document was that the state’s major transport infrastructure authority had received anecdotal evidence of criminal elements becoming involved in government projects.

This briefing said informal investigations of these reports did not reveal widespread criminal activity, but it was agreed the anecdotal matters would be referred to Victoria Police. It noted that sensitive discussions about the issue were within a small pool of senior management and that “further information could come to light” if they spoke to more people.

The document also appears to point towards the unsigned report that Allan denied having knowledge of. It says related concerns about industrial relations and project costs were outlined in another submission to the minister that should be “read in conjunction with this briefing”.

“There are no immediate financial implications. However, a possible increase in concerning behaviour has the potential to significantly impact public costs and schedule,” Young quoted the document as saying.

A third document tabled to the commission was a letter from Allan, dated June 23, 2023, to then-Victoria Police commissioner Shane Patton informing him of the warnings she had received about criminal behaviour. She said she understood the department’s own general counsel had referred these matters to police but felt the need to address the issue herself as well.

The tabling of the three documents was a demonstration by the royal commission that it would not baulk at examining the highest levels of the state government. It also suggests Allan will not only be questioned about whether she read the first document, but whether she sought it out after signing off on the separate brief that pointed towards it.

The other counsel assisting the commission, Christopher Carr, SC, said it would not only seek to understand how much ministers and others knew, but whether they were wilfully incurious.

“It is at least as important to examine whether any such person sought to avoid knowledge, to have plausible deniability,” he said.

Carr said the commission’s task was daunting, the allegations were grave, and the scope of investigations required by the royal commission’s terms of reference enormous.

“However, the public can be assured that this commission will be unstinting in its examination of the conduct of all those involved in the events, the subject of this commission, and in its recommendations as to how the scourge that is alleged to have taken hold of the construction industry in this state can be eradicated.”

The royal commission into Victoria’s Big Build was Ben Carroll’s first pledge as premier and a defining issue in the ousting of Allan as premier in July.

The state’s infrastructure program was a defining feature of the government led by Daniel Andrews – and later Allan – and contributed to resounding election victories in 2018 and 2022. However, damning reports of widespread waste, misconduct and corruption within the $109 billion Big Build began to emerge in 2024.

Powerful union boss John Setka abruptly resigned just before this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes published an investigation into criminal infiltration of the CFMEU and building industry. Hundreds of stories over the next two years continued to reveal widespread exploitation of Victoria’s mammoth infrastructure spending.

During Wednesday’s hearing, it was revealed the commission had already held closed hearings as it sought sensitive information to build its case.

Kourakis said early disclosure of this information would have compromised its investigation and that further closed hearings might be needed in future, but that the commission would continue to deliver on public expectations of full disclosure on all matters related to its remit.

There will be two blocks of public hearings before the end of 2026, and the first will take place in November during the election campaign. There is no list of witnesses yet, but the powers handed to Kourakis extend into the executive government, allowing him to call politicians and advisers alongside public servants, union leaders and building firms.

Kourakis said Victorians had debated the Big Build projects for years but that he expected many people would agree on values such as the obligation to protect taxpayer investments and ensure positions were not abused. This extended not just to the government, but the companies contracted in construction and the unions tasked with ensuring their members were protected.

“There can be no tolerance at all for the carpetbaggers who corrupt an industry through extortion and bribery, whatever euphemisms they may employ to hide what they really do,” he said. “There should be no place in government, or the industry, or on its fringes, for those persons who whose moral compass malfunctions.”

Kourakis said it was the job of the commission to recommend lasting reforms to ensure it was not just “one more in an endless series of investigations” into the sector.

He urged anyone from all levels of government, unions, academics and the private sector to come forward with submissions, and fired a warning to anyone who sought to avoid scrutiny.

“I assure the people of Victoria, and warn all people who have done wrong, that the commission will leave no stone unturned and search for whatever is hidden or whomever lurks underneath it,” Kourakis said.

“Anyone who has an ambition to remain in the industry will be better served by early voluntary disclosures to the commission than by waiting to be found out.”