Hutchies boss Scott Hutchinson says relationship with unions are improving as Olympic build nears

It’s not peace and love yet with the CFMEU but Hutchies’ boss Scott Hutchinson is hopeful a continued thaw in relations will help improve chances of meeting Olympic opening ceremony deadline.

It’s not a love-in yet and Hutchies boss Scott Hutchinson still reckons unions are “a pain in the ass” but relations are improving with just seven years to go before the opening ceremony of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

Hutchinson was on the panel at the Australian-Israel Chamber of Commerce annual lunch at the W Hotel with Deputy Mayor of Brisbane Fiona Cunningham and the Queensland executive director of the Property Council Jess Caire when he was asked about the CFMEU.

The union has undergone significant leadership changes, particularly within its construction division, following revelations of misconduct and subsequent administration and Hutchinson says there’s some cause for hope having noticed more co-operation on building sites.

Scott Hutchinson says relations are thawing with the CFMEU.

“The unions are a pain in the ass but they’re not the major pain in the ass. The major pain in the ass is demand and that was caused by the Reserve Bank,” he says.

“We’re now hopeful with the unions. It’s always when you get leaderships changes in organisations there always pockets of negativity in organisations but they’re trying.”

Hutchinson told about 250 people at the lunch which kicked off Showcase 2025 that capacity issues building the Olympics will work itself out with costs under control after the RBA pumped a “ridiculous amount” of money into the economy during the covid pandemic.

But with reports of a shortfall of 55,000 workers when the Olympic infrastructure build starts next year Hutchinson (illustrated) says hard choices will have to be made.

“This won’t go down well but private work has to stop or get a lot less. All that stuff on the Goldy has to stop,” he says.

“It’s really the lull before the storm at the moment we know it’s going to ramp up.”

Despite the warnings Hutchinson says we will get there albeit with some hiccups.

“We just have to tone down demand from other things,” he says.

“I want a smooth Olympics without people laying bricks on the second last day. As far as a builder goes success is not having that situation.”

IP bonanza

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi will spend up to $2.45bn to acquire a biotech company with exclusive rights to develop a unique vaccine technology invented by University of Queensland scientists to fight against life-threatening respiratory viral infections.

Sanofi has entered into an agreement to acquire Vicebio, a London-based company formed in 2018 to develop UQ’s proprietary Molecular Clamp technology developed by University of Queensland’s professors Paul Young, Daniel Watterson and Keith Chappell.

The deal is the largest involving a company that is commercialising intellectual property from an Australian university.

Prof Keith Chappell is a member of the UQ Molecular Clamp team.

UQ is a shareholder in Vicebio, through direct investment and the licensing of the vaccine platform technology for commercialisation by UniQuest, the University’s wholly owned commercialisation company.

UQ has a strong track record of commercialisation, demonstrated by the granting of more than 360 US patents and the creation of over 130 start-up companies using UQ intellectual property. These companies have gone on to raise more than $1bn to take UQ technology to market and grossed more than $86bn in product sales.

They include the licensing of the UQ-invented cervical cancer vaccine Gardisil, and more recently Spinifex Pharmaceuticals and Inflazome, another two of the largest university start-up acquisitions in Australian history.

Originally published as Hutchies boss Scott Hutchinson says relationship with unions are improving as Olympic build nears