The Palaszczuk government must act urgently to fix its broken and poorly implemented procurement policy for major projects, Queensland construction workers demanded today.
A rally of more than 4000 thousand workers in Brisbane passed a resolution calling for an urgent inquiry into the failings of the state government’s much vaunted ‘Best Practice Principles’.
CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar said the policy had failed to deliver on the government’s statement procurement objectives of creating secure local jobs, training and apprenticeship positions, and maximising use of local content.
“What we have are major projects such as the Townsville Stadium – involving hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money – where the benefits are not flowing through to the local economy as they should because of mismanagement and the greed of builders, in this case Watpac.”
“There is a complete failure of transparency and accountability, and a lack of willingness on the part of the bureaucracy to enforce what should be sensible policy objectives that aim to leverage the benefit of major projects for all Queenslanders,” Mr Ravbar said.
“In Townsville, for example, tens of millions of dollars that should have flowed through to local suppliers and workers has instead been used to fatten the margins of money-hungry corporates.”
“This is far from ‘best practice’, and sections of the government seem more concerned about protecting the interests of large contractors, than ensuring taxpayers’ money is not wasted.”
“The shortcomings in administration need to be resolved quickly, and before work commences on the next series of major state projects such as Cross River Rail, or Queenslanders risk being taken for a ride by greedy contractors more interested cutting corners to boost their corporate bottom line than delivering lasting benefits for the state.”
/Public Release.
