QBCC staff told ‘none will be forced to leave’ by board chair Dick Williams

The under-fire QBCC board chair has told the watchdog’s more than 500 staff that none of them “will be forced to leave … without their express agreement”, but it’s his job that appears to be most at risk following an eye-opening review.

Under-fire Queensland Building and Construction Commission board chair Dick Williams has told the building watchdog’s more than 500 staff that none of them “will be forced to leave … without their express agreement” as a result of the Varghese Review.

In an internal email sent following yesterday’s release of Jim Varghese’s findings, Mr Williams stressed that “regardless of any potential impact on jobs within the QBCC there will be no forced redundancies”.

He added that “notwithstanding that some roles will change, no current employee will be forced to leave the organisation as a direct result of implementation of change arising from the review, without their express agreement”.

Mr Williams said the Board, QBCC Commissioner and senior leadership team would be “working closely with all impacted staff to ensure that these changes are introduced carefully and effectively”.

Under-fire QBCC board chair Dick Williams.

But it’s the job of Mr Williams – a former state ALP president appointed by Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni in 2016 – and other board members that seem most at risk in the wake of Dr Varghese’s review.

Dr Varghese’s 17 recommendations include cutting the size of the current board, including the chair, from ten to seven – a move already approved by the Palaszczuk Government, which said it was “timely” as the appointments of current board members expired on November 30.

Former Labor Minister Robert Schwarten has already announced he’ll be standing down from his position on the QBCC board, which he joined in 2016.

QBCC insiders don’t expect Mr Williams – who told staff in his email that “we have a big job ahead of us” – will remain in his role to implement the wide-ranging reforms.

“With any review, there always has to be a scapegoat and with Mick de Brenni distancing himself from the governance issues which have plagued the QBCC, Dick Williams is next in the firing line considering a new commissioner has only just been appointed,” a source said.

“There’d been talk that Mr Williams was planning to leave even before the review was announced last November, but now it seems he won’t have a choice”.

Former Labor Minister Robert Schwarten has already announced he’ll be standing down from his position on the board. Photo – Jann Houley

In his report, Dr Varghese said stakeholders had questioned “whether the QBCC board fully represented the industry and had the necessary expertise to govern the QBCC”.

“Stakeholders believed the composition of the QBC Board promoted a perception of bias and/or a potential conflict of interest considering individual QBC Board members’ businesses. One submitter wrote the QBCC ‘needs to be totally independent and have a professional boardroom. Vested interest groups … should have a minimal or no role at all’.”

Dr Varghese highlighted research by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) showing the QBCC appeared to have the only building industry regulator board without a member with public sector experience.

The research also found Queensland was the only jurisdiction where the board included members who’d “worked in a trade union”. Mr Williams is a former State Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) while CFMEU assistant secretary Jade Ingham was a controversial appointment in 2018.