The big questions being raised around Queensland’s ‘Big Build’

On time and on budget. It’s the holy grail for anyone trying to finish a project of any type or size, let alone a state government putting such emphasis on its growing $89 billion infrastructure pipeline that it’s slapped on a (borrowed) slogan: the “Big Build”.

This makes any deviation a boon for critics and oppositions – for good reason, this is public money after all – and deviation there has been nationwide as project costs and timelines grow.

But, unlike elsewhere, this is an election year in Queensland, so a truckload of salt is needed. Even more so when the pay and conditions enjoyed by some groups of workers are being used to foster resentment among others, rather than lifting the rest up.

Cross River Rail boss Graeme Newton briefs state and federal MPs, including then acting premier Steven Miles. The $6.3 billion mega project is one of many on the government’s growing books.

Enter Queensland’s “best practice industry conditions”, referred to as BPICs, or pejoratively by some critics and media as the “CFMEU tax” – playing into the construction union’s militant reputation for maximum public scare factor.

Conditions laid out in the policy, including pay rates and 5 per cent annual pay increases until 2027, extra pay for working in the rain, restrictions around work in hot and humid conditions, and allowances for using a personal phone for work or having to travel to a site, have made headlines.

While suggestion have been made that some of these are over-the-top, there is a good reason for many: safety. Like many jobs, in varied forms from physical danger to emotional risks or the drain of long or unusual hours, construction can be tough work.

This is also an area many of the vocal industry groups or political critics insist they are not looking to undercut, as significant 2032 Games and energy transition work looms along with road, rail and hospital projects also requiring balancing in June’s state budget.

(However, unions and the Labor government suggest backward steps on safety would be the result of any winding back of conditions).

The issue, as argued by them, is one of costs and productivity. Claims of project budgets being inflated by as much as 30 per cent as a direct result of the best practice approach are being thrown around, though with little concrete evidence.

Ongoing national supply chain issues around materials, or a shortage of workers able and willing to do the work, is less frequently mentioned. Similarly, the cost blowouts and delays on a significant number of other major infrastructure projects across the country, without such a scheme.

But the clearest argument may have come back in 2021, when the Queensland Major Contractors Association – representing the state’s biggest firms – told a federal parliamentary inquiry the idea of the best-practice approach launched in 2018 was “good intentioned in theory”.

However, what had been guidelines became requests and ultimately a mandatory requirement for any major contractor wanting to land a government gig with more than $100 million, locking out smaller companies said to be lacking the ability to deal with unions.

“Governments cannot and should not get involved in the IR [industrial relations] landscape unless it is in relation to their own employees,” chief executive Andrew Chapman wrote.

“Government intervention in the IR landscape through mandation of industrial relations outcomes via the procurement process distorts the market as only those that comply with the Qld government’s view of ‘IR best practice’ would be considered to win projects”.

Not all companies in the construction and major projects sector are singing from the same sheet on the best practice approach – which has also been used to suggest important new housing targets won’t be met, or blamed as “largely” the reason behind the shortage.

Scott Hutchinson, the chairman of the Queensland-based building firm sharing his last name and the title of one of the country’s largest privately owned construction companies, has described efforts to blame unions as a “red herring”.

Why? Hutchinson told the ABC last month that the real issue was in the amount of demand for construction work, and the shortage of workers to do it.

Because of this, he said he’d turned down 80 per cent of jobs offered last year ($1 billion each month) to avoid the productivity issues of stretching teams too thin and manage cost pressures from past fixed-price jobs where materials had increased.

Despite some newer, “independent” though LNP-linked workers’ associations using public debate for their own purposes, the peak collection of the state’s registered unions – the Queensland Council of Unions – is clear in its support for the best practice approach, and the deeper issue at play.

“The reason for these cost blowouts and overruns is simply because of the sheer number of projects expected to be delivered by all governments across Australia over the next five years,” general secretary Jacqueline King said in a statement.

“Queenslanders need these projects built to secure our future. Queensland workers also deserve to know that both Labor and the LNP will commit to keeping BPICs in the long term”.

Premier Steven Miles and his cabinet have given no suggestions otherwise, offering defences over days now that the scheme is simply a collection of the best wins negotiated by workers in various agreements across the state. LNP leader David Crisafulli has refused to answer.

Queensland’s own independent government number-cruncher has also made a point of the nationwide construction squeeze. In a December report about major projects in the state, the Queensland Audit Office warned about the current “boom”.

“The large volume of capital projects in the pipeline for Queensland, along with other significant capital projects under way across Australia, means the construction sector will face several challenges for years to come,” the report said.

“These include a very tight labour market and significant supply chain disruptions following the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and conflict in Ukraine.

“The Queensland government must proactively manage these risks, and plan for realistic time frames to ensure it can successfully deliver its extensive infrastructure agenda.”

There was no mention of double-time for working in the rain.