Ministers hold crisis briefings in bid to save key projects from BPIC blowouts

The LNP has held crisis meetings on how to save key projects from blowouts caused by controversial CFMEU “tax” which the the government temporarily suspended this week.

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• Your say: ‘CFMEU honeymoon over’

Four senior ministers have held crisis briefings on how to save key projects from blowouts caused by controversial Best Practice Industry Conditions.

The new LNP government has moved to assure the building industry it would help protect them from CFMEU thuggery in the wake of the policy suspension.

Infrastructure and Planning and Industrial Relations Minister Jarrod Bleijie, Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki, Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg and Public Works and Housing Minister Sam O’Connor were all provided significant briefs on projects facing cost blowouts due to BPIC, later revealed by Treasury to cost an estimated $17bn.

“It became increasingly clear as Ministers received their incoming briefs that BPIC was both grinding our state to a halt and was causing the cost of taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects to spiral wildly out of control,” Mr O’Connor said.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie is at war with BPICs. Picture: Annette Dew

“Ministers, including the Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Transport Minister and myself, realised that unless we took urgent action, Queenslanders would continue to pay the CFMEU tax every single day.”Mr Bleijie, after just two weeks in the role, announced the government would halt BPIC policy on all future government projects, opening up the tender process to some 178,000 contractors who had not signed onto the policy.

The 269-page BPIC policy replicated Enterprise Bargaining Agreements set in place by unions, providing employees working on government projects worth $100m or more a range of perks including double time pay when it rains, $100 per week phone allowances and 26 RDOs on top of calendar public holidays.

By suspending the policy, Mr Bleijie said, the government intended to increase productivity by limiting unscheduled work stoppages.

There are fears of blowouts with major works such as Cross River Rail. Picture: Steve Pohlner

It is expected to impact industrial relations agreements only, not existing workplace health and safety laws.

But the CFMEU remains adamant that the move will lead to unsafe worksites and expose workers to heat stress.

In a post to social media on Friday, the union accused the government of attempting to scrap Workplace Health and Safety measures.

The post included a screenshot of an email sent by the mother of Glen Newport who died of heat stroke in 2013 and was accompanied by a caption asking journalists and politicians to read the coronial inquest into Mr Newport’s death.

“The coroner recommended the construction sector adopt an “industry-wide code of practice” to manage the risk of heat,” the union wrote.

“The CFMEU implemented our heat policy soon after. It will save lives this summer just as it does every summer.”

Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg said worker safety would remain a top priority of the government, but it had been weaponised by the CFMEU to shutdown jobsites.

Minister for Transport and Main Roads Brent Mickelberg. Picture: Annette Dew

“Productivity on Queensland job sites, in many cases, is around 60 per cent of what it should be that is directly attributable to the provisions that are contained within BPIC,” he said.

“For example, the CFMEU will come on site and use an anticipated temperature later in the day as an excuse to shut down the job site, that frequently doesn’t materialise.

“What we have seen consistently, including (Friday) morning, is that the CFMEU have weaponised those provisions for their own selfish interests and to destroy productivity on job sites.”

Mr Mickelberg said police would be relied upon to stamp out “bullying and thuggery” on worksites after workers on the Centenary Bridge project relayed to him alleged incidents of intimidation.

“They told me about CFMEU thugs coming over the fence, jostling workers,” he said.

“It is simply not good enough that workers did not feel safe on construction sites in Queensland.

“It stops now, the LNP government will not side with the CFMEU.”

Mr Bleijie said the government would soon reintroduce the 24-hour notice rule for union members entering worksites to stop intimidating behaviour.

Independent Workplace Health and Safety inspectors will be deployed across the state.

He claimed construction businesses had confided in him as Deputy Leader of the Opposition about being in fear of their lives.

“I referred matters to the CCC, but it was quite clear businesses could not go public because they feared for their life,” he said.

“They feared for their business.”

The Opposition, meanwhile, accused the government of cutting tradies’ wages and demanded it layout a new plan for infrastructure delivery without BPIC.

“The LNP are cutting the wages of tradies - something they said they wouldn’t do before the election,” a spokeswoman said.

Work is underway to ensure projects aren’t delayed. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“The government need to be clear how their plan will deliver the pipeline of skilled workers our state needs to build road, rail, health and housing infrastructure and Jarrod Bleijie needs to be upfront with Queenslanders on how these changes will impact the delivery of major projects, including the three new hospitals in Bundaberg, Coomera and Toowoomba.

“Every day that the LNP delay signing major construction contracts increases the risk of cost increases and cuts.”

Housing Minister Sam O’Connor on Friday wrote to stakeholders about what the BPIC suspension means, with the government willing to negotiate how to handle future blowouts on its projects signed under BPIC.

Mr Bleijie said cost overruns affecting the TMR project pipeline would need to be a main focus, but each project would be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

“We support the projects that are in existence at the moment, they’ve got to be done,” he said.

“We’ll work with the builders, contractors, the department, the unions, to try and work out how we can reduce the cost escalation.”

Other proposals that have gone to tender but are yet to be signed, will likely be reopened to the market, “without the CFMEU tax applied to it,” Mr Bleijie said.

“I think that will encourage a lot more people who aren’t aligned with the CFMEU to actually put forward propositions of proposals,” he said.

Originally published as Ministers hold crisis briefings in bid to save key projects from BPIC blowouts