Regulators are focusing on a network of labour hire businesses that has supplied workers to some of New South Wales’ biggest projects for more than two decades, including a $1.2 billion central bank refurbishment, a $3.1 billion data centre development and major commercial towers across Sydney. These firms grew by providing traffic management and labour crews to top tier and rising builders, often positioning themselves as cost competitive while still working under established workplace agreements. Now the same group sits at the centre of a complex investigation involving dozens of related entities.
According to court filings, a specialist firm appointed with the support of the national tax authority has taken control of up to 15 interconnected companies linked by payments and labour supply arrangements, after a series of collapses left around $104 million outstanding in Pay As You Go and state payroll taxes. As part of the probe, the tax authority has obtained freezing orders over bank accounts and properties tied to senior managers and relatives associated with the labour hire network, alleging millions in undeclared income, interest and penalties that could exceed $5.7 million in one case and $3.3 million in another. The investigation also stretches back to entities that supplied hundreds of workers to the group from as early as 2015, with some of those companies lasting only one or two years, relying heavily on the labour hire group as their main or sole client and then folding while owing millions to tax agencies.
Although no wrongdoing has been legally established and representatives for the businesses firmly reject any suggestion of tax evasion or avoidance schemes, the wider implications appear significant. The probe seems to highlight longstanding weaknesses in how labour supply chains are structured in construction, how tax compliance is monitored and whether large builders’ due diligence checks can keep pace with increasingly complex subcontracting models. With the Federal Court granting extra time for potential claims of under invoicing, estimated at about $4 million, and identifying up to 88 people for possible public examinations, the outcome could influence future enforcement strategies, reshape how labour hire is used on major projects and quietly push the industry toward stricter oversight, even as the investigations continue into next year.
