Opinion: Controversial union benefits actually reduce waste

CFMEU members have been unfairly blamed for everything from project delays and federal funding cuts to the housing crisis and the Olympic stadium saga, writes Michael Ravbar.

Blue-collar workers are collateral damage in the controversy over the state government’s Best Practice Industry Conditions policy.

CFMEU members have been unfairly blamed for everything from project delays and federal funding cuts to the housing crisis and the Olympic stadium saga.

Our members overwhelmingly come from working-class backgrounds. They work hard in an itinerant and often dangerous industry, and they join the CFMEU because they see a union ticket as a pathway to a decent life for their families.

We don’t believe high-vis workers are second-class citizens because they didn’t attend a GPS school or university. We love our members, whether they live in Brisbane or the regions, and we are proud of the conditions we’ve won together. We’ll never apologise for making construction a more civilised industry for workers.

That’s why the CFMEU and other blue-collar unions support the Best Practice Industry Conditions policy. BPIC is about putting Queensland first.

BPIC puts Queensland construction workers first by raising standards on government projects, and creating opportunities for apprentices, women and First Nations workers.

CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar

BPIC puts Queensland manufacturing workers first by forcing contractors to source products from local suppliers, which creates more blue-collar jobs here and keeps taxpayers’ money in the local economy.

And BPIC puts taxpayers first by holding construction companies to account. Big-ticket projects that have been built under the BPIC policy, such as the satellite hospitals, have been delivered on time and on budget.

The problem is this government has failed to enforce BPIC across the board. On Transport and Main Roads projects, for example, the BPIC document is not mandatory and therefore not worth the paper it’s written on.

In practice, TMR ignores BPIC and awards contracts to cut-price companies that deliberately price the job low and then demand more money throughout the life of the project, leading to massive cost blowouts and waste.

By ignoring the BPIC policy, TMR and its rogue contractors are letting taxpayers down. Those billions of dollars gifted by TMR to crooked civil construction companies should have been spent on affordable housing or health or public schools.

The truth is the BPIC policy is our best defence against corporate greed and government waste.

Michael Ravbar is CFMEU state secretary