LNP hits pause on Labor policy with eye on infrastructure ‘golden decade’
By Matt Dennien
The news
The LNP will abandon Labor’s major project procurement policies to “get construction sites in Queensland working again”, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has announced.
Bleijie revealed the long-telegraphed move – “effective immediately” – in a speech to a Queensland Major Contractors Association (QMCA) event on Thursday morning, where it was met with applause.
Jarrod Bleijie, standing alongside Housing and Public Works Minister Sam O’Connor, speaks to media after his speech.Credit: Matt Dennien
The move has been long called for by construction firms and their peak bodies, and the LNP says it will help deliver on the party’s promise to ensure projects are delivered on time and budget.
“You all have a great role to play in that, and let’s get construction sites in Queensland working again – productivity, productivity, productivity,” Bleijie told the crowd of about 500.
But unions and the Labor opposition have expressed concern the move could harm safety on job sites and undermine wages just as more tradespeople are needed.
Why it matters
Dubbed Best Practice Industry Conditions (BPICs), the policies set pay and conditions on state-funded projects at union-negotiated levels, positioning the government as a model client.
Some elements have been criticised as too union-friendly and productivity-sapping, fuelling largely anecdotal claims of increased construction costs across build from infrastructure to housing.
The LNP has painted the policies as “sweetheart deals” with the scandal-plagued CFMEU, although the pay and conditions are not exclusive to that union’s workers.
A QMCA report released on Thursday found delays and cost increases had hit the $103.9 billion five-year statewide public and private project pipeline, amid a “golden decade” for infrastructure.
It argued growing demand, along with increasing labour and material costs, required a focus on boosting supplier capacity and project productivity – with BPICs one roadblock.
What they said
At a media conference, Bleijie said the pause on BPICs in the construction, renewable energy and transport sectors would remain while the government set up a Queensland Productivity Commission and it probed the building industry.
“We will be temporarily suspending BPICs, effective immediately,” Bleijie said of the move. It would apply only to future contracts, although he hoped it would also find productivity gains under existing ones.
“We want workers well paid, and they will be. We want workers to be safe. But we also need to increase productivity on work sites.”
He said elements of the policies covering health, safety and training would stay, with the move to allow more smaller firms without union agreements or pre-approval to apply for work.
“You’ll actually end up [with] workers probably better paid because the market will determine that … you will actually have more competition.”
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie at Thursday’s media conference
Master Builders Queenslander chief executive Paul Bidwell, speaking alongside Bleijie, said industry had “been banging on” about productivity with the former government for more than a year.
Another point of view
A CFMEU spokesperson said cancelling BPICs was “a clear signal” the LNP wanted to cut wages and conditions leading to a “dangerous deregulation of the labour market and more workers dying on construction sites”.
Labor leader Steven Miles made similar comments on Wednesday, describing Treasury analysis that the policy was putting pressure on housing affordability as “made up”.
Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King also raised safety fears and said there had been no consultation with unions about the move likely to push workers to other industries or states, urging Premier David Crisafulli to discuss “genuine productivity”.
“If the LNP want to get serious about improving productivity on government jobs they should review their contracts with the majors to ensure they are prevented from gouging Queensland taxpayers for alleged cost blow-outs,” King said.