Editor’s view: Miles govt’s union deals hurt Qld’s most vulnerable
Right now in Queensland, according to the industry experts, we have a long-term Labor government facing a tough election that has used taxpayer cash to cut deals with unions, which of course bankroll its campaigns, writes the editor.
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Miles government ministers seem to think there are two very distinct markets in Queensland: the public sector and the private sector.
And they would have you believe the former operates entirely in its own universe without ever impacting on the latter.
This is, of course, not true.
And yet this is the very argument trotted out time and again by those ministers in defence of the insanely generous workplace agreements the government has struck with rogue construction union the CFMEU, and has started to extend to the more moderate AWU.
These are taxpayer-funded deals that promise workers wages 30 per cent above the market rate, and conditions so generous and broad they all but guarantee that not one person covered by them will ever have to work a full 38-hour week.
Why these ridiculous deals were ever struck is not clear, but we do note the timing of negotiations usually coincides with a personal attack by the CFMEU on the relevant minister – a time-honoured tactic of a union that relishes using scare tactics to bully its way to preferred outcomes.
Nobody from government has, however, conceded this.
Instead the ministers tend to explain that as “good Labor people” they believe in doing what they can to ensure the best deal for workers during a cost-of-living crisis (no matter the impact on the state’s budget, which voters trust them to be good stewards of).
What we do know for a fact is that these deals – the so-called “Best Practice Industry Conditions” – are now firmly in place for any state government project that is to cost more than $100m (and so, most).
The ministers claim that these conditions don’t distort the market, because they only apply to workers on those projects.
But that is, of course, complete nonsense – because it is the same market!
A rudimentary example: Let’s say you are a tradie whose salary in the private construction sector for working 10 days each fortnight is $120,000.
You are probably feeling pretty good about yourself.
But then along comes a union official who tells you that if you join up and come over to ply your trade on government construction sites – doing the exact same work – you will get paid $156,000 and have a range of new working conditions that mean you work only eight days a fortnight.
At the very least, you are going to now demand a better deal from your current employer.
That’s how the market works, as anyone who has ever worked in the real world knows.
It is impossible to believe that this truth is not understood around the cabinet table – even one stacked with as many former union officials and public servants as this one is.
Another truth about any market is that there are only ever so many qualified workers available.
But after a decade in power, the state government has decided to embark on a $92bn construction program it has called the “Big Build”, stealing the name from a similar scheme embarked on by former Victorian Labor premier Dan Andrews.
And as the latest industry update from Master Builders warns today, this sudden pipeline of government projects – all of which will be built under those BPIC agreements – is “pushing up the cost of construction so much that Queensland developers say building new high-rise units doesn’t stack up”.
So this is where we are right now in Queensland, according to the industry experts: a long-term Labor government facing a tough election has used taxpayer cash to cut deals with unions, which of course bankroll its campaigns.
Those deals have so distorted the market it has become uneconomic for the private sector to increase the supply of properties, an outcome that would ease prices and so help our most vulnerable.
Well done. Slow clap please.
Magistrate uses the law to protect us all
It is good that the message is finally getting through to magistrates: that Queenslanders expect the courts to play their role in properly punishing youth criminals.
The accused had already appeared in court three times this year.
“I hear about weak youth justice laws and everything like that,” Mr Bucknall said.
“The courts are armed with significant powers through section 48Aaa of the Youth Justice Act”, adding that the section provided powers for courts to impose tough sentences or penalties on youth offenders if they posed an unacceptable risk to the community.
“Whilst I read the media every day, I never see that position or that particular piece of legislation referred to,” he said.
How wonderful is it to see a magistrate to use the laws as they stand to protect the community, which should be the primary goal of the legal system.
We just wish more of his colleagues would do the same.
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Originally published as Editor’s view: Miles govt’s union deals hurt Qld’s most vulnerable
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