The Labor Party is facing questions over its ties to a powerful union as more details emerge of the large-scale destruction of documents in Queensland.
CFMEU employees have told the trade union royal commission staff worked into the evening shredding documents or sorting them for removal while security cameras were covered.
Officials tried to burn two trailer-loads of files - almost seven tonnes - on a bonfire, but there was so much paper it had to be taken to the tip, the Brisbane hearing was told.
The purge, described by staff as a routine clean-up supervised by vice president Michael Ravbar, began on April 1, 2014, the day the union was served with a notice to produce evidence to the royal commission.
CFMEU training coordinator Bob Williams told how he and fellow official Brian Humphrey were ordered to torch about 80 boxes of material in a paddock at then-divisional president David Hanna's Cornubia property, south of Brisbane.
"Had some logs and stuff there, we lit those up and attempted to throw boxes on there," Mr Williams said.
"They're so squashed together, it doesn't burn very well, so we decided that was futile.
"We rang David and said ... 'We need to find another method to get rid of this stuff'."
The boxes were loaded onto a hired tip truck bound for the dump, the load weighing in at 6.86 tonnes.
Mr Humphrey said he went along at Mr Hanna's request "to make sure it was disposed off appropriately".
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the revelations are outrageous, but fended off Liberal National Party calls for her party to sever ties with the CFMEU.
She called on the party to wait and see what the commission's findings were before taking action.
"Just because there is one rotten apple doesn't mean the whole barrel is full of rotten apples," she said.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten warned Labor would have "zero tolerance" if criminality was established.
Staff from the CFMEU's Brisbane office testified the clean-out was a normal process to get rid of old paperwork, which was more voluminous that year because of a recent merger with the Builders Labourers Federation.
But no-one could explain why Mr Hanna ordered an official to cover the building's security cameras with banners and an old T-shirt while the files were being cleaned out.
Mr Ravbar is expected to appear before the commission on Thursday.
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