MEDIA RELEASE
28 October 2020
LAST CHANCE FOR VOTERS TO “LET US BUILD QUEENSLAND”
Queenslanders have only a few days left to make their concerns known and encourage local politicians to support Australian owned companies to help lead the building of the State’s largest public infrastructure projects.
The Australian Owned Contractors (AOC) lobby group, representing the nation’s best Mid-Tier civil construction companies, has over the past five weeks waged a pointed advertising and agenda-setting campaign to support local company opportunity and growth.
AOC CEO Brent Crockford said the campaign and its petition had attracted lots of support and signatures and was aimed at mobilising marginal seat Queensland voters to add their voices to calls for change.
“After more than five weeks of rattling the cage, Queensland politicians are definitely on notice that local voters want action to change large-scale bundled procurement on major public infrastructure contracts,” he said.
“The current public sector system results in the majority of these projects being awarded to foreign owned companies ahead of qualified and highly skilled local businesses, and Queenslanders are poorer for it.”
Mr Crockford urged voters to support the ‘Let Us Build Queensland’ campaign in the final week and reminded them that five out of Queensland’s six biggest transport infrastructure projects worth nearly $9 billion had been awarded to foreign owned construction companies in the past five years.
Since 2015, these projects valued at $8.9 billion include:
Cross River Rail - $5.4 billion - CPB Contractors-led consortium (Spain) - 2019
Toowoomba Second Range Crossing - $1.6 billion - Acciona (Spain) and Ferrovial (Spain) - 2015
Bruce Highway - Caloundra Road to Sunshine Motorway - $812.9 million - Fulton Hogan (NZ) and Seymour Whyte (France) – 2016
Bruce Highway Caboolture to Beerburrum - $662.5 million – Acciona (Spain)
Mackay Ring Road Stage 1 upgrade - $497.3 million - CPB Contractors (Spain) - 2017.
The only top six project awarded to an Australian company consortium was the Haughton River Floodplain Upgrade in 2018. The project, valued at $514.3 million, went to local companies BMD, Bielby and JF Hull.
Mr Crockford said politicians from all parties across the nation saw the sense of introducing practical measures to give homegrown companies more leadership opportunities on major projects but lacked the will to tackle cumbersome procurement policy at public sector and individual departmental levels.
“This issue can no longer be ignored or put in the ‘too hard basket’,” he said. “Queensland support for our campaign, and AOC polling, makes it very clear that action on this issue will sway Queensland votes.”
He said that AOC campaign polling showed that 90 per cent of Queenslanders would welcome an election commitment in line with the ‘Let Us Build Queensland’ calls to action.
The ‘Let Us Build Queensland’ petition is available via the campaign webpage: www.letusbuild.com.au
Australian Owned Contractors is made up of 18 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