‘Hunger Games’ loom as top-tier builders vie for lucrative Olympic contracts

Queensland’s construction industry is bracing for a subcontractor “Hunger Games”, with top-tier builders now poised to chase lucrative Olympic contracts.

Queensland's construction industry is bracing for a subcontractor 'Hunger Games'.

Queensland’s construction industry is bracing for a subcontractor “Hunger Games”, with top-tier builders now poised to chase lucrative Olympic contracts after the government stalled its $17bn hospital program.

With around 190,000 subcontractors in Queensland – not enough to build both hospitals and Olympic venues – top-tier builders are now scrambling to retain workers before they flee for more secure and better-paying 2032 Games contracts.

The government’s decision to pause and redesign the 15-hospital build program was broadly welcomed by major contractors, who say the delay will help ease cost blowouts and supply chain pressures. But privately, many are now warning that subcontractors could vanish during the lull.

Hutchinson Builders chairman Scott Hutchinson backed the slowdown, saying builders were already turning down work.

“When our turnover goes up, our profits go down. Pulling back work at present isn’t that destructive,” he said.

But companies with less appetite for Olympic bids fear their subcontractors will jump ship,

“We wouldn’t see this as providing a gap that would then enable us to jump into the Olympics,” one contractor told the Courier-Mail.

Hutchinson Builders chairman Scott Hutchinson. Photo: Tara Croser.

“We want to keep the subbies we have engaged … If you lose them to Olympic venues that we might not be bidding on, we don’t get them back.”

This week the state government scrapped the 2022 hospital build program and will now restructure the timelines for which of the 15 hospitals will be built before the 2032 Games.

After spending considerable money and years planning the hospital builds, major contractors are not afraid of being “turfed out” and are prepared to accept delays to make themselves available during the Olympic infrastructure build window.

However, Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the competition could come from interstate hospital builds, rather than the Olympics, due to the need for “specialised teams”.

“We are actually more or less competing with other programs around hospital builds in other states than we are with people who are building stadiums. They’re quite different,” Mr Nicholls said.

Member for Coomera, Michael Crandon, and Minister for Health Tim Nicholls at the site of the Coomera Hospital project. Picture: Jacklyn O’Brien.

He added the delays would enable contractors to engage subcontractors for a longer period of time, including young apprentices that can be trained up for several years.

“They’ll be able to have those people on site going through their apprenticeship from beginning to end, and also getting experience as fully qualified trades people, so there are some real benefits for it.”

But the industry fears the delay will turbocharge an already cutthroat market for skilled labour, particularly as consultants currently designing hospitals are also expected to take on Olympic venue planning.

Master Builders Queensland chief executive Paul Bidwell said subcontractors were now “in the box seat” with the state projected to fall 10,000 tradies short every year until 2032.

“They’ll gravitate to where the big money is – and I imagine the Olympics will have an element of prestige,” he said.

Master Builders QLD chief executive officer Paul Bidwell.

“It’s going to be a scramble, like a Hunger Games.”

Australian Contractors Association chief executive Jon Davies warned the government must rework hospital tenders quickly to avoid long-term workforce losses.

“We could end up losing them to other projects and might struggle to get them back to Queensland,” he said.

And the shadow of Labor’s now-scrapped Best Practice Industry Conditions dubbed the union “tax” still looms, with one source blaming it for scaring off southern subcontractors: “We have to bring confidence back.”

Originally published as ‘Hunger Games’ loom as top-tier builders vie for lucrative Olympic contracts