Australians are voting with their feet. As people continue to migrate north, the southern states are watching Queensland closely. If population growth and economic momentum are one signal of where the country is heading, the Queensland Productivity Commission’s final report may be another.
Because what is playing out in Queensland’s construction industry is not a local problem. It is a national warning.
Australia’s construction industry is becoming less productive, more expensive and harder to govern. Over the past three decades, productivity has fallen, costs have surged and innovation has stalled. The result is an industry that is increasingly unable to deliver the infrastructure the country needs at a price taxpayers and developers can afford.
Industrial relations sit at the centre of this problem.
The Queensland Productivity Commission’s final report, and the Queensland Government’s response, lay bare what many in the industry have long known: adversarial industrial relations, poor procurement practices and regulatory dysfunction are undermining performance and inflating costs across the system.
The Commission was particularly clear about the weaponisation of health and safety. The safety of workers is non-negotiable. Yet it is also an uncomfortable truth that safety frameworks are sometimes misused to exert industrial leverage and disrupt projects. Legislation designed to ensure appropriate union and health and safety representative involvement has, in some cases, been cynically and systematically repurposed to assert power and control on worksites.
This is not an argument against high safety standards. The construction industry’s safety performance has improved dramatically over decades through genuine collaboration between employers, workers and unions and more work still needs to be done but we cannot allow a focus on safety improvement to be abused.
Queensland’s willingness to acknowledge these realities matters. The Government’s acceptance of the majority of the Commission’s recommendations signals a recognition that the problem is structural, not cyclical, and that incremental fixes will not be enough.
For the construction industry, this moment represents more than another policy review. It is an opportunity to reset how industrial relations, procurement and productivity are managed, not just in Queensland, but nationally.
With the CFMEU now in administration, there is a chance to move beyond a reactive, crisis-driven approach to industrial relations. The focus must shift to the future: lifting productivity, restoring lawful behaviour and providing certainty for workers and businesses so projects can be delivered on time and on budget.
But reforms cannot succeed in isolation.
The challenge is not a lack of ideas. Reports like the QPC’s clearly show what needs to be done. The problem has always been implementation. Too often, initiatives are left to individual agencies or isolated projects. Momentum is lost, responsibility is diffused and outcomes are diluted.
In Queensland, it is encouraging to see broad acceptance of the Commission’s recommendations. But progress will only follow if these reforms are centrally coordinated, transparently tracked and driven with urgency.
Procurement reform must also sit alongside industrial relations reform. A genuine focus on value for money, rather than lowest price, clearer risk allocation and greater use of standard contracts are essential if productivity is to improve. Without these changes, contractors will continue to price risk defensively or walk away, reducing competition and capacity.
The lessons from Queensland extend well beyond state borders. Construction projects and the challenges surrounding productivity, procurement and industrial relations are national in scale. Every jurisdiction is grappling with the same pressures: rising costs, constrained capacity and significant infrastructure pipelines.
That is why Australia needs a national construction strategy, one that sets clear standards, encourages competition and supports innovation across the country. Work on such a strategy is underway, and its completion eagerly anticipated. But once published, it must not sit on a shelf. It must be implemented with the same urgency and discipline now being demanded in Queensland.
The reforms currently underway in Queensland, from the removal of Best Practice Industry Conditions to procurement changes, are a starting point. The real test will be whether they translate into a more productive, sustainable and competitive construction sector.
For Queensland, the stakes are high with an Olympic deadline approaching. For Australia, the stakes are higher still. If we are serious about delivering infrastructure faster, achieving better value for taxpayers and building a high-performing construction industry, industrial relations reform must be front and centre.
Queensland may be leading the conversation. The rest of the country should be paying close attention.
Opinion piece by Jon Davies, CEO, Australian Constructors Association.