Qld’s $47bn infrastructure projects lacking 35,000 workers

Queensland has only half the construction workers it needs for a growing infrastructure pipeline, with shortfall increasing in the lead-up to 2032.

Major road projects are among those suffering a shortfall in manpower. (File picture)

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Queensland has only half the construction workers it needs for a growing $47bn infrastructure pipeline, with the critical shortfall increasing as the state gets closer to the 2032 Olympic Games.

The major 2024 Market Capacity Report by Infrastructure Australia has also warned the state’s construction industry — and the public purse — will have to grapple with an ongoing increase in the cost of building materials like timber, copper and sand.

But in a small reprieve, there is a growing chance Queensland’s projects could be delivered closer to planned budgets as a fall in investment in southern states helps ease overall market demand.

Infrastructure Australia chief executive Adam Copp said skill shortages, rising material costs and a 30-year stagnation in construction productivity continued to impact the nation’s ability to build.

“Construction materials on average cost around 30 per cent more than they did three years ago,” he said.

“(And) we simply don’t have the people power we need to get the job done on time — our analysis shows 7 per cent of the pipeline, or $15bn of planned construction work, has been hampered by project delays,” he said.

In Queensland, 74,000 workers are needed to build the pipeline of infrastructure — from road to rail, renewable energy and hospitals — but the state will be short 35,000 personnel across the five-year program.

Renewables projects are under threat from the lack of staff. (File picture)

And the most in-demand jobs are general labourers where there is an estimated 8900-person shortfall, alongside a 3100 shortage of professional engineers and 2800 road-based civil plan operators.

A regional construction boom driven by renewable energy projects will also be hit by a supply crunch as it is harder to get workers up to the state’s north.

Infrastructure Australia found there had been a significant geographical shift in investment to northern jurisdictions such as Queensland and the Northern Territory, with the pipeline of public infrastructure growing by $12bn compared to last year’s report.

In New South Wales and Victoria, the investment pipeline has shrunk by a collective $39bn.

Mr Copp said this presented an opportunity for Queensland to deliver projects more closely on time and budget, but the situation would need to be monitored.

“Infrastructure projects over the last few years have blown out in cost and blown out in time very regularly,” he said.

“I think with the decline in investment at a national level, and particularly in the southern states, there’s more opportunity to deliver more closely to time and budget, but we will need to monitor the situation in order to understand that better.”

Mr Copp said the cost of construction materials had increased dramatically in the past two to three years, and while prices were still climbing it was expected to be at a slower rate.

Originally published as Qld’s $47bn infrastructure projects lacking 35,000 workers