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The outgoing boss of one of Victoria’s key Big Build contractors says the CFMEU’s dominance of government worksites must be broken if the state wants to address the root cause of rampant corruption and criminality.
ACCIONA Australia and New Zealand chief executive Bede Noonan also says taxpayers could get essential infrastructure built for less if governments streamlined planning, design and approval processes – which he argues are the overwhelming cause of cost blowouts.
“It is time delays, it is approval delays, it is not getting agreement between a contractor and a client on certain issues,” he said. “It’s almost never to do with the actual work itself.”
Local staff at the Spanish construction giant were told on Thursday that Noonan and his brother, chief operating officer Andre Noonan, would retire from the company by the end of this year.
The pair have been in the roles since ACCIONA bought out their construction and engineering outfit Geotech in 2017 and opted to keep them in management and as major shareholders.
ACCIONA has become a major player in Victoria’s Big Build infrastructure blitz though the level crossing removal program, and is now part of a joint venture awarded a $3.6 billion contract to tunnel the first half of the Suburban Rail Loop East rail line.
Bede Noonan told The Age on Friday that the construction sector could have done things differently to manage the risk of corruption on major government worksites, which has been centred on the CFMEU and become a major headache for the Allan government.
But he said the “root cause” of the issue was that the CFMEU had been allowed to gain a monopoly over government civil project sites, after it muscled out the rival Australian Workers’ Union from what had traditionally been its turf.
A landmark corruption report released earlier this year found that the CFMEU had used violence and threats to blacklist contractors to take over civil work previously controlled by the AWU.
Noonan said workers had lost the freedom to join a non-CFMEU union, or not be a union member at all, and that remained the case even under the CFMEU’s government-appointed administrators.
“The root cause of what’s going on is ultimately monopoly behaviour. The CFMEU have become a monopoly force in civil construction in Victoria,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s being addressed by anybody at this stage, and I actually don’t even see it being intended to be addressed.”
While Victoria’s Big Build infrastructure program has been marred by multibillion-dollar blowouts, Noonan said his sector was constantly improving productivity on construction sites.
But planning, design and approvals remained incredibly inefficient. He said he could have a skyscraper in Melbourne designed and approved in four months, but approvals for an equivalent piece of government infrastructure would take two years.
“Our industry has a huge opportunity … to deliver equivalent pieces of infrastructure at enormous savings to what we’re currently costing,” he said.
The Allan government has faced questions over the cost of the massive Suburban Rail Loop East rail project, given its $34.5 billion estimate was released five years ago and was followed by significant inflation on key building materials and this year’s oil crisis.
An Allan government spokesperson said: “Criminal activity on worksites undermines every worker and offends every Victorian, and anyone engaged in it must face the full force of the law.
“We have zero tolerance for any sort of illegal behaviour – anyone with information about alleged misconduct on our worksites should come forward so it can be referred to the appropriate authority. We have taken strong action to strengthen Victoria Police and the Labour Hire Authority so that they have the powers they need, and it is working – with more than 88 criminal charges laid and 151 construction company licenses now cancelled.”
The CFMEU was approached for comment.
Noonan said ACCIONA’s joint venture with CPB Contractors and Ghella was on track to start tunnelling work in September. Although high oil prices would increase the cost of concrete used in the tunnels, he said it was “not huge” and could be managed within budget.
ACCIONA has more than 5000 employees across Australia and New Zealand and is building $20 billion worth of projects.
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Patrick Hatch is transport reporter at The Age and a former business reporter.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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