Opinion: Manufactured class war no answer to policy critics

I’m almost lost for words at the claims and excuses trotted out this week in defence of the state government’s BPIC policy, writes Kylie Lang.

People flipping stop and go signs during roadworks get paid twice as much as teachers and nurses, yet those of us who object to this blatant idiocy are elitist.

Michael Ravbar, really.

Next you’ll be telling us that women aren’t discriminated against in your union-strangled construction industry because ladies toilets have been installed at building sites. Oh wait, that was Premier Steven Miles who coughed that one up.

The limp attempts this week to defend the Best Practice Industry Conditions policy adopted by the state government to appease its union backers prove both the CFMEU boss and the Premier are yesterday’s men.

CFMEU Queensland boss Michael Ravbar. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

To recap, among the clangers in the BPIC stitch-up are that construction workers get paid double for having to work in the rain.

They also get a full month of rostered days off each year, and an extra $1000 a week when working away from home.

How’d you like to earn $200,000 a year for swapping out traffic signs?

Meanwhile, those on the frontline of healthcare and education are quitting due to burnout and dismal employment conditions, including pathetic remuneration.

Mr Ravbar, writing in The Courier-Mail on Friday after several days of BPIC backlash, described blue-collar workers as “collateral damage” in the controversy over the policy.

The CFMEU state secretary went on to suggest any person who didn’t agree, or feel for them because they “overwhelmingly come from working-class backgrounds”, was a toff.

“We don’t believe high-vis workers are second-class citizens because they didn’t attend a GPS school or university,” he said.

Wake up. Neither does anyone else who objects to the BPIC policy and explained their reasons this week. Industry insiders say the cushy deal on government projects has skewed pricing across the board.

By hiking wages and giving perks well beyond what the private sector can or should be expected to pay, critical development projects are simply not happening.

Master Builders Queensland chief executive Paul Bidwell says any criticism of BPIC is not about undermining workers’ safety or other rights but “can we get on and build? Because if we don’t, we are not going to deliver all these houses plus the other projects that are needed”.

The only person making BPIC about class is Michael Ravbar – which shows he is clutching at straws, big time.

Master Builders Queensland chief executive officer Paul Bidwell.

Joining him in the embarrassing-thinking-from-bygone-days department is Steven Miles.

It speaks volumes when the best Mr Miles can do to defend BPIC and the government’s figurative middle finger to teaching and nursing – female-dominated professions unlike the wolf-whistle world of construction – is to say women will still benefit.

How? Because they will work in the government hospitals and schools that are being built.

He actually said that.

Oh, and there are ladies loos now on construction sites – see how progressive the Labor government is in encouraging women to get out of the kitchen.

“It (BPIC) includes requirements, for example, that they have women’s toilets on site,” Mr Miles said on Thursday. “So it’s one of the key objectives of our projects to get more women into those industries.

“But our other industries, our direct state government employees, will benefit from the infrastructure that these projects are delivering.

“They will work in the hospitals, they will work in the schools, and so it’s important that we get the workers that we need to deliver those projects.”

Mr Miles – elevated to power on backroom deals with union heavyweights after they axed Annastacia Palaszczuk – also said “the BPIC sites where women are supported, where they have toilets” provided better conditions than the other industries in question, those being nursing and teaching. Can this really be 2024?

Premier Steven Miles having lunch with Michael Madigan at the Murrumba Downs Tavern as part of the High Steaks series. Murrumba Downs Friday 12th April 2024 Picture David Clark

Women should be grateful for the provision of a receptacle in which to perform bodily functions, and those who aren’t rushing to enter construction on the strength of toilet tokenism should be content to accept lower wages and “worse standards” in other fields.

I’m almost lost for words at this lunacy, and the manufactured class war of Michael Ravbar.

Expecting that all workers – regardless of gender or employment sector – be fairly rewarded for the job they do is reasonable for any society.

There is nothing elitist about it.

LOVE: KAP leader Robbie Katter calling out Premier Miles’ inquiry to grill supermarket giants on pricing as a “sham”, amid accusations farmers were barely given time to have their say. How is that representative or transparent?

LOATHE: The state government claiming to be tough on youth crime when more than half of Queensland’s worst hardcore offenders are roaming free on the streets – having only 196 of these 482 kids in detention or on remand is inexcusable

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail
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