⚠️ Dirty Turbines:
Crime, Contracts, and a Wind Farm Worth Billions
$190,000 in public money.
A company run by a convicted drug trafficker.
Organised crime figures lurking behind renewable infrastructure.
And the union that helped make it happen.
This isn’t a headline from a crime novel. It’s what’s unfolding right now inside Australia’s biggest wind farm project - backed by the federal government, funded by taxpayers, and entangled in a growing corruption scandal.
Welcome to the Golden Plains Wind Farm.
Where the turbines spin, the money flows, and the system looks the other way.
🧱 The Setup: Public Money, Private Gain
In late 2022, the Australian Workers Union (AWU) secured a $190,000 state government grant.
The beneficiary? A labour hire company called 24-7 Workforce.
What wasn’t disclosed at the time, and has only come to light through The Age’s recent reporting, is that 24-7 is run by a convicted drug trafficker and linked to at least two known Middle Eastern organised crime figures.
This company didn’t just receive public funds. It was backed by the AWU to secure lucrative work on the $4 billion Golden Plains Wind Farm in western Victoria - one of the nation’s largest renewable energy projects, supported by the federal Albanese government.
⚠️ The Infiltration Risk Is Real
It would be easy to write this off as one bad funding decision or a “failure of due diligence.”
But that would be a mistake.
Because this isn’t a one-off.
This is a pattern, and a dangerous one.
Organised crime syndicates have been infiltrating public infrastructure projects for years, often through labour hire companies and subcontracting arrangements. And where there’s money, contracts, and poor oversight, corruption thrives.
This time, it’s not just white-collar fraud.
It’s criminal infiltration into Australia’s clean energy transition - aided, either wittingly or negligently, by those entrusted to protect worker interests.
🛑 A Worker Died. And They Knew the Site Was Unsafe.
Weeks before this scandal broke, tragedy struck the Golden Plains Wind Farm.
A 36-year-old worker named Jess Patience was killed when he was crushed by a turbine blade.
It was his first day on site.
The AWU had written to the project’s main contractor, Vestas, weeks before the fatality warning of poor safety conditions, delays, and inadequate supervision. Yet work continued. And a life was lost.
Now, the same union that raised those valid safety concerns stands accused of partnering with a company linked to criminal activity, for access to the very same site.
You can’t have it both ways.
🔍 The System Is Failing From the Inside
This scandal forces a reckoning far beyond one union.
It raises urgent questions:
Who’s responsible for vetting the companies that receive public grants?
How did a known criminal secure a taxpayer-funded role on a federally supported infrastructure project?
Why are unions meant to safeguard workers, facilitating entry for those with links to organised crime?
And where is the political leadership demanding answers?
Because let’s be clear: this isn’t a story about a “bad apple.”
It’s a failure of oversight. Of ethics. Of governance.
And it puts lives at risk.
🧩 Reckon With This
This story won’t just disappear. It can’t. Too many lives, too much public money, and too much public trust is on the line.
But it will be buried, like all uncomfortable truths, unless we keep dragging it into the light.
In this edition of The Reckoning Room, we’re not just naming the scandal.
We’re naming the system that allows it.
Unions are not above accountability.
Government contracts are not a free-for-all.
And justice doesn’t stop at the crime itself, it demands answers for how it was enabled.
📌 Coming Soon
➡️ A deeper timeline of the Golden Plains Wind Farm rollout, including internal union correspondence and contract pathways
➡️ A look at how “clean energy” is fast becoming a dirty game of unchecked power and political collusion
➡️ Voices From The Reckoning Room: the whistleblowers, insiders, and workers who warned us
💬 Your Turn
Have you worked on a major project that raised red flags?
Have you seen unions acting as gatekeepers to shady operations?
Your story matters, and you’re not alone.
📩 Send your tip anonymously by emailing me at: jeanineorzani@gmail.com
🔒 Your identity will never be shared without your consent.
⚡️ Share This Reckoning
When corruption enters the clean energy transition, it’s not progress, it’s profit-driven theatre.
And we all pay the price.
Share this edition. Start the conversation.
And let’s make sure the turbines aren’t just spinning - they’re accountable.