Portfolio — 31 July 2026

The dominant discourse from Nepean in this window centres on a serious integrity challenge to Victoria's Big Build procurement — specifically, the Member for Nepean's Assembly accusations against road contractor Elite Roads and its owner Deon Coote. The Member for Nepean raised in the Assembly that Elite Roads operates under what he characterised as criminal management, pointing to Coote's environmental prosecution for illegal waste dumping and to media reports of payments made to underworld figure Mick Gatto during the company's Big Build work [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s031].

The Member framed the procurement environment as one enabling contract acquisition through bullying, bribes, and blackmail, and called directly for public transparency so that Victorians and potential contractors can understand who controls Elite Roads [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s031]. He rejected Elite Roads' position that its contracts were properly secured, and stated that neither he nor his local colleagues would tolerate bullying conduct.

The contribution spans two domains that the records also flag: transport and roads procurement, and environmental enforcement — the environmental prosecution of Coote providing the Member's evidentiary anchor for the broader governance argument. The assembly speech is the sole record in this window; no third-party references to Nepean and no media releases are present in the available records.