MEDIA RELEASE

10 September 2020

AUSTRALIA LOSES ITS LAST SUPER CONTRACTOR TO FOREIGN INTERESTS

Australian Owned Contractors (AOC) today marked the loss of Australia’s last locally owned Tier One civil construction business with the confirmation of the sale of Lendlease Engineering to Acciona of Spain.

AOC CEO Brent Crockford said that all major Australian transport infrastructure was now almost 100 per cent foreign built, with the bundling of mega projects making it impossible for Australian-owned companies to competitively bid, win and lead our most important contracts.

“Australia had a once proud history of developing iconic Tier One construction businesses including Lendlease, John Holland and Leighton, and sadly all are now foreign owned,” Mr Crockford said.

“While governments across the country continue to hand out billions of dollars of contracts to foreign multinationals, profits and IP will continue to head overseas, local company skills development and growth will remain limited, and sustainability of the Australian contracting industry as a whole is stymied.”

Mr Crockford said that iconic projects such as Snowy 2.0 and Western Sydney Airport – directly procured by the Commonwealth Government – would be built by foreign multinationals.

He warned that if Australian governments did not change their procurement approach, the nation would never again have a home-grown Tier One construction business.

“Australian owned businesses are not being given opportunities to evolve their businesses into larger contractors and are relegated to small projects or second-class sub-contractor status to foreign multinationals,” he said. “This preferencing of foreign nationals leaves us all the poorer.”

Australian Owned Contractors is made up of 17 local Mid-Tier construction companies:

Members of Australian Owned Contractors are:

·         Majority Australian owned and controlled – at least 51% owned by Australian shareholders

·         Have revenue in excess of $250 million

·         Companies that have participated in Federal and State Government funded infrastructure