Michaelia Cash bans firm over truck safety breach

A Queensland construction company has been banned from tendering for federal government work for one month following investigations by the federal building watchdog.

MCP received a one month exclusion sanction against after a mobile concrete pump truck it was operating toppled while working on the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing project.

A Queensland construction company has been banned from tendering for federal government work for one month and a second company issued a formal warning, following investigations by the federal building watchdog.

Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash issued the one-month exclusion sanction against MCP (AUS) Pty Ltd after a mobile concrete pump truck it was operating toppled while working on the joint Queensland and Commonwealth government-funded Toowoomba Second Range Crossing project.

The concrete pump truck with a 60-metre boom had been incorrectly set up, resulting in the boom overbalancing and the crane tipping over. No one was injured in the incident. MCP pleaded guilty in the Toowoomba Magistrates’ Court to failing to comply with its health and safety duty and was fined $50,000.

The Australian Building and Construction Commission said MCP made full admissions in court, fully co-operated with the ABCC, and took positive steps to remediate its conduct.

The sanction is the first imposed under the Coalition’s 2016 building code for a contravention by a code-covered entity of health and safety laws.

The code provides that where the ABCC commissioner refers a breach of work health and safety laws to the minister, the minister must impose an exclusion sanction unless the minister decides it would not be appropriate in the circumstances.

In her letter to MCP imposing the sanction, which will extend to 23 June, Minister Cash said: “The Australian government takes any work health and safety contraventions very seriously given the potential for tragic outcomes, including serious injury and death.

“While the fact that there were no injuries as a result of this particular incident weighs against imposing a lengthy exclusion sanction, I am not satisfied that this, MCP’s co-operation with the ABCC commissioner or the steps taken to improve safety following the incident, render it inappropriate to impose any exclusion sanction at all.” Senator Cash also issued a formal warning to Queensland-based building company Intelligent Infrastructure Solutions Pty Ltd, also known as i2 Solutions, for its failure to pay subcontractors and breaches of security of payment laws.

The road construction company, which went into voluntary receivership in June last year, owes $166,375 to subcontractors and failed to make on-time payments totalling more than $1.19m to contractors. Prior to entering into administration, i2 Solutions operated in Queensland, NSW and Victoria on large road infrastructure projects.

In 2019 and early 2020, i2 Solutions failed to pay a number of its subcontractors on time or at all on the M4 Smart Motorway project in NSW and the Logan Enhancement Project in Queensland.

The security of payment breaches committed by i2 Solutions include a failure to make ­payments totalling $1,196,416 on time to different subcontractors; failure to pay a subcontractor $127,026, determined by an adjudicator; and failure to pay one subcontractor claims of $39,349.

It also engaged in “intimidating and threatening behaviour” during an adjudication process with a subcontractor.

ABCC commissioner Stephen McBurney said the breaches of security of payment obligations amounted to breaches of the code.