Arabic version: تحقيق نقابة CFMEU في كوينزلاند يدعو إلى مدونة جديدة للبناء

According to ABC News, Queensland CFMEU inquiry commissioner Stuart Wood KC has delivered an interim report calling for urgent changes to the state’s construction industry after more than 50 days of hearings and evidence from over 80 witnesses.

Wood recommended that the state government introduce a new building code and establish a dedicated, well-resourced regulator to educate the industry and enforce compliance. He said the need for change was “urgent and pressing”, delivering the report before his findings had been due.

The commissioner said the inquiry had heard “highly disturbing” allegations of CFMEU misconduct. It also examined cost blowouts connected to the former Labor government’s Best Practice Industry Conditions policy, which set pay and conditions on major taxpayer-funded projects and has since been scrapped by the Crisafulli government.

Wood found BPIC had increased construction costs by at least 20 per cent on three projects examined by the inquiry: Brisbane’s Cross River Rail, the Centenary Bridge upgrade and the Gold Coast Light Rail. He described that estimate as conservative and said taxpayers ultimately bore the cost. The policy also fuelled a dispute between the CFMEU and Australian Workers’ Union over Queensland’s civil construction sector, he said.

The proposed code is intended to improve workplace safety, productivity, efficiency and legal compliance across Queensland’s $119 billion infrastructure pipeline over the next four years. It would use possible exclusion from future government-funded construction work to promote compliance by contractors and subcontractors. The Crisafulli government was expected to respond on Thursday, while the inquiry’s final report is due in December 2027.