QBCC’s $1.5m PR blitz as money ran out for staff, secret documents reveal

The embattled Queensland Building and Construction Commission started work on a $1.5m publicity blitz just months after fears were aired about running out of money to pay staff wages.

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission kicked off research for a glitzy $1.5m PR blitz just months after board chair Dick Williams feared the building watchdog would run out of money to pay the wages of its staff.

Confidential documents obtained by the LNP under RTI confirm Mr Williams raised serious concerns about the embattled QBCC’s “cash-flow forecast position” at a board meeting in June 2020.

Minutes from the meeting reveal Mr Williams had advised Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni’s office that Deloitte would be engaged to undertake an independent review of the watchdog’s finances “which would be provided to Queensland Treasury”.

“It was also highlighted at the meeting that without additional funding, the QBCC could not meet its financial obligations for wages past March 2021,” the documents reveal.

Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni’s office was advised Deloitte would be engaged to undertake an independent review of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission’s finances. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dan Peled

The RTI documents also detail board members raising concerns at earlier meetings around “the backlog of 300 complaints about defective work”; average wait times of “11 weeks to get a building inspector on site”, and high job vacancy rates “due to the lack of current funding”.

A separate RTI response received by the LNP reveals the fears raised by Mr Williams about staff not being paid in March 2021 were soon forgotten when research started six months later in September that would “underpin” the QBCC’s new $1.5m brand information campaign.

The research found only one in five of the population knew of the QBCC and that “those who have interacted with the QBCC are more likely to have a negative perception”.

Contestants from TV series The Block were being considered for commercials as part of the QBCC’s $1.5m 12-month PR campaign.

This separate RTI response to the LNP exposes a flurry of top-level emails and documents sent between the QBCC, Mr de Brenni’s office and the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) sent in the days after The Courier-Mail revealed the QBCC was launching the PR blitz.

An Emergent Issue Brief (EIB) prepared for the minister’s office in March reveals $1.25m had been allocated in the QBCC’s budget for the campaign, with another $250,000 to be “funded from expenditure savings”.

“Research, media review and concept development were originally costed at $65,000 and messaging testing at an additional $46,000,” the document reveals.

“The overall budget estimation for the remainder of the campaign rollout is upwards of $1.5m.”

Former senior Beattie government bureaucrat Dr Jim Varghese. The Queensland Building and Construction Commission has been the subject of an inquiry into its dysfunctionality, with the Palaszczuk government yet to respond to Dr Varghese’s final report.

The 12-month campaign, featuring contestants from The Block TV series, includes TV commercials, online videos, digital billboards and social media posts.

The QBCC has been the subject of a costly inquiry into its dysfunctionality, with the Palaszczuk government yet to respond to former senior Beattie government bureaucrat Dr Jim Varghese’s final report, which contains 17 recommendations and 77 “corresponding actions for implementation”.

Opposition backbencher Michael Hart said Mr Williams – and Mr de Brenni – needed to outline the QBCC’s funding priorities at a time when builders around the state were struggling to survive.

“Board members and the chair himself are raising very serious concerns about how the lack of funding is impacting the QBCC’s core business, yet the commission inexplicably launches an expensive campaign to tell Queenslanders how well it is performing,” Mr Hart said.