Wednesday, 3 May 2023

Transport infrastructure projects

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (17:55): (185) My matter for the adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, although it is a matter of great interest, I think, to the Treasurer, the Assistant Treasurer and likely the Minister for Industrial Relations as well. It has come to public attention through a series of articles in the Australian Financial Review that the CFMEU has been working through a number of projects to act with favouritism towards one group of Indigenous employees and firms as opposed to another group of Indigenous employees and firms.

There now appear to be as many as nine projects on the government’s major projects list. The Major Transport Infrastructure Authority has responsibility for a number of these projects, including the metropolitan roads packages and Mickleham Road and the extensions that are proposed there, and it is clear that the CFMEU is exercising its powers through the contractual arrangements and pressuring the contractors, likely with the connivance and support of the government, to choose between one group of Indigenous employees and another. This is a terrible approach that has been adopted here.

Obviously, this is a matter that has IBAC interest, and IBAC may well investigate this in detail. We certainly think they should and have been in communication with IBAC to ensure that the corruption aspects of this are dealt with appropriately. But there is also a cost element here. The CFMEU is inserting one group over another, but that is not necessarily the group that has been successful in terms of the best procurement and the best tender process. The action I am seeking from the minister is that she order an urgent investigation to make sure that these nine projects, and potentially more, are delivering the value for money that is required.

I saw the Premier’s strange and spooky comments on this today. He does not seem to be worried about value for money, and he does not seem to be worried about the fairness of different decisions being made about which Indigenous group is involved in a project and which is not. It is clear that the government is beholden to the CFMEU. It is responding to their pressure. I note that there has been work done by the auditor looking at the Mickleham Road business case and pointing to a number of deficiencies in that, and that is the one that came to public attention as the first of these sites where favouritism is being shown. But I say the government must act to return value for money and ensure that Indigenous groups are not treated less favourably than they should be because they do not have a link with the CFMEU.