Queensland’s key civil construction union repeatedly raised concerns with public servants and former Labor ministers about the legality of the state’s major infrastructure procurement policies.
Australian Workers Union state secretary Stacey Schinnerl is walking the inquiry through various emails and meetings from early 2021 about the now squashed union-backed entitlements in the building sector, known as Best Practice Industry Conditions.
Schinnerl said she first warned then ministers Mark Bailey and Mick de Brenni in March of that year that a planned addition to the transport department-specific policy was in “conflict” with federal laws.
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This related to the third stage of the Gold Coast light rail and the ability the changes could give unions such as the CFMEU to enter agreements where they did not have membership coverage.
“I issued a warning that I believed the government was on tenuous grounds,” Schinnerl said.
The ministers said they had “Crown law advice and their strategy was sound”.
Schinnerl asked for that advice, but it was not provided. She said Bailey indicated “that the government doesn’t have any interest in getting involved in union turf wars”.
She raised similar concerns about the policy impact on civil construction projects with heads of various state government departments.
Despite the AWU getting the agreements for the earlier light rail stages with contractor John Holland, the third stage agreement was eventually made with the CFMEU.
Schinnerl said prior to this, one of the firm’s representatives, Trent Smith, told her the pressure from the CFMEU on the separate non-civil building side of business was too great.
