As the Royal Commission into union corruption gets underway this week a number of figures say they are already facing inquiry, as details and evidence are leaked to the media.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) National Secretary Dave Noonan has indicated he believes the authorities behind the Commission are the ones leaking information.

He says he has asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate the possiblity of strategic leaks. 

Noonan says a recent report in Fairfax media outlet The Age twisted the facts into an allegation of corrupt conduct.

The Age ran a story claiming that Victorian CFMEU boss John Setka coerced Peter Chiavaroli, a developer on a project at the old Pentridge Prison in Melbourne, to hire his brother in law Anton Sucic in 2009 in an effort to bring more union influence to the site.

The reports claimed unions used backroom dealings to bully workers into joining, and pressured managers to get more non-members to sign up.

But Mr Noonan says Mr Sucic was hired because there had just been a fatality at the site, and he was the best person to keep the project safe and on target.

“I think it is certainly true that Mr Setka arranged for a job at the Pentridge site for Mr Sucic who is a friend of his,” Noonan said in an interview with the ABC.

“Mr Sucic is also an experienced construction worker with over 20 years’ experience, a registered builder and is trained in occupational health and safety.

“As The Age note only in passing, this followed the tragic death of a worker on the construction site at Pentridge. And this is a situation where the union has insisted that steps be taken to make what was a grossly unsafe site safe.

“It is astonishing in the video that I have just watched this morning [on the Fairfax Media website] that Mr Mackenzie from Fairfax appears to regard the death of the worker as of less significance than the fact that the union took steps to make the site safe.

“We make no apologies for that.”

Victoria’s Minister for Industrial Relations Robert Clark says the accusations, true or not, need to be played out as part of important inquiries into an industry rife with “criminal misconduct”.