FOLLY OF NEWMAN GOVERNMENT CUTS EXPOSED BY ONE OF ITS OWN

Media Release

The Newman Government’s folly in abolishing its QBuild building and maintenance group, especially in regional areas, has been exposed by one of its own leading backbenchers says Shadow Construction and Public Works Minister, Bill Byrne.
“When the Newman Government slashed hundreds of jobs from QBuild and forced its merger with Project Services in 2012 he claimed the scrapping of this successful arm of government would result in greater efficiency and more work being performed by local contractors,” said Mr Byrne.
“Well that fable has been well and truly exposed by his colleague, the Member for Gregory, Vaughan Johnson who yesterday told Parliament of the disastrous impact of that foolhardy decision on his community.
“As he is standing down at the next election, Mr Johnson obviously feels free to tell it how he sees it.
“Mr Johnson has been honest enough to admit that local tradespeople in Gregory are missing out on building contracts, businesses are going bust and families are leaving local communities because they can’t compete with outside contractors who bring their own materials and supplies and are strangling local commerce.
“It is clear from his comments that Mr Johnson believes the decision to downgrade QBuild has had severe negative consequences for remote and rural communities.
“To quote from the Hansard record of Mr Johnson’s speech: ‘I appeal to Minister Tim Mander and other government ministers to take note of the situation.’
“He went on: ‘Since QBuild went off the radar, a lot of these contracts are now being awarded to outside people. I appeal to the ministers in question, especially the housing minister, to make certain that this flow is stemmed and that the local people become the sole operators for these contracts. We are losing families. We are losing businesses. We are losing people left, right and centre from the west.’
“The Member for Gregory is making a heartfelt plea to his own government because he knows that the LNP’s stubborn and simplistic ideological trust in market forces and competition is causing immense damage to his electorate.
“His concerns reflect those the Labor Party expressed at the time QBuild was being demolished.
“Mr Johnson describes the current situation as totally unfair and he knows the government of which he is a member is to blame.”
QBuild was originally established to deliver building maintenance and construction services to Queensland Government agencies and provide support relief in the wake of natural disasters and major incidents.
When the Newman Government took office there were 3,169 employees in QBuild and Project Services. Those agencies were merged into the new Building Asset Services which now has 1174 staff – a cut of almost 2,000 jobs.
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