Thursday, 10 February 2022

Adjournment

North East Link Program

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (17:13): (6206) My adjournment is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and the action I ask is for the minister to come out and meet with Quinn Civil. Quinn Civil is a fully accredited industry leader and well-respected family-owned business of more than 50 years in the Victorian water industry. They have always paid their bills on time. Quinn Civil were contracted to carry out specialised work on the early works package of the North East Link Program, a major infrastructure project. Due to inadequate design by the North East Link Program and CPB Contractors, major design requirements for the authorities were not carried out. QC were then contracted not for design but only for the construction. This poor design led to them suffering massive delays on approvals by authorities and also massive changes that could not have been foreseen by anyone. QC had no ability to talk to the North East Link Program throughout the project to discuss their concerns, as they were always blocked. QC were prevented from consultation with Melbourne Water while maintaining stakeholder approvals was their risk under contract. The North East Link Program and CPB were not willing to fairly discuss various claims and extensions of time that added up to tens of millions of dollars. Instead they were completely ignored or refused.

On any other job QC would have been paid for their extra scope of work, and variations in this have totalled between 30 and 50 per cent of the total package. They did not recognise the huge financial strain on QC. They have offloaded all financial risk onto the subcontractor even though the issues arose due to their poor design. The treatment of QC, an industry leader, on a major state-run infrastructure job is both unconscionable and unethical. Due to financial strain QC were forced to stop work and try to negotiate a way forward last October. This finally brought the state government’s North East Link Program to the table. During a four-week period QC’s engineers worked tirelessly to bring issues they were facing to the North East Link Program’s attention. This led to the approval of approximately $11 million to be paid to QC’s creditors. However, this money was never paid to QC. Instead it is thought to have gone to CPB, who have not passed it on to the rightful creditors. The creditors are now owed $17.5 million, and they want to know where the $11 million that was approved has gone. That money includes funds for COVID-related costs that were incurred during construction lockdowns and many other reasonable variation costs.

The creditors, on the other hand, are small businesses that are suffering significantly due to the state government’s negligence in addressing this matter. The state government is refusing to pay for the work that has been carried out, and the hardworking people, including those who have delivered essential services, have been broken. They have lost their business and assets and are now at risk of losing their house. They want to meet with the minister. They have written on multiple occasions, and they cannot get through the door to meet with the minister to have a discussion, to negotiate and to work out a fair outcome that is of benefit to them, their creditors and all of those that are contracted to them. It is the right thing to do, and I ask the minister to meet with them.