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The CFMEU has confirmed it will build Brisbane's main Olympic stadium following successful contractor negotiations, ensuring union involvement despite criticism from Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie. While the government aims to reduce union influence by removing BPICs and involving multiple unions, the CFMEU highlights its track record in major sporting venues. Meanwhile, the Labor opposition has criticized the government for inconsistent claims regarding the project's cost estimates.
The CFMEU has vowed to build Brisbane’s main Olympic stadium, despite the LNP government’s apparent hostility towards the union.in the final stage of contractor negotiations on Wednesday, all but guaranteeing it would build Brisbane Stadium.
CFMEU Queensland branch executive Jared Abbott said that also guaranteed his union’s involvement in the project, which would have political oversight by Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie – the CFMEU’s most vocal critic within the Crisafulli government.
“Unionised workers built the Sydney Olympics, redeveloped the MCG, and constructed every major sporting arena in Queensland. With both BESIX Watpac and John Holland holding CFMEU EBAs, Brisbane 2032 will be no different,” Abbott said.
“CFMEU workers have been waiting to get started building the venues for the Olympics. Now they can get on with the job. ” Comment was sought from Bleijie, who set up Queensland’s ongoing Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU and Misconduct in the Construction Industry in his role as industrial relations minister. Bleijie was away and unable to respond, but Acting Industrial Relations Minister Ros Bates said the CFMEU’s influence would be reduced on Olympic sites.
“The Crisafulli government has already removed the former Labor government’s BPICs, which they created for their CFMEU mates and caused billions of dollars’ worth of blowouts and years of delays on government projects,” she said. “There will be site-specific agreements that do not involve BPICs and will likely involve multiple unions for 2032 and beyond venue sites.
” The Labor opposition, meanwhile, has accused Premier David Crisafulli of being “fast and loose with the truth” over the stadium’s cost, after he insisted his government had never put a price tag on the Victoria Park venue. The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority came up with the often-cited $3.785 billion cost in its 100-day review, but Crisafulli told journalists on the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday his government had “never said what the budget is for individual projects”.
It was a strategy the premier has previously said was aimed at ensuring competitive bidding in the marketplace.
“It’s about making sure we deliver the Games work with our agreement with the federal government for $7.1 billion, and we are going to do that,” Crisafulli said. But in response to a question on notice from Greens MP Michael Berkman – who submitted a question on notice regarding the cost of the stadium – Crisafulli’s deputy put the figure in black and white.
“The budget for the main stadium project is $3.785 billion,” Bleijie said in his answer tabled in parliament on May 12. Opposition Leader Steven Miles seized on the apparent contradiction on Wednesday.
“The fact is, that was the one venue they were being transparent about the cost of, and now he’s saying that even that is not true,” he said. “The fact is, they are obfuscating even further because they know they are going to blow well past their $7.1 billion budgeted figure , especially once you consider the true cost of the arena and the other precinct works at Victoria Park.
“The government – the premier – has misled Queenslanders when it comes to the true cost of his Olympic stadium. ” Miles also criticised “build a $1.2 billion swimming pool with 17,000 temporary seats for the Olympics” as an example of reckless spending, which had contributed to
Brisbane 2032 CFMEU Brisbane Stadium Construction Industry Queensland Government
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