A plethora of reports into the poor practices of a company central to a joint venture approved to proceed to the tender stage for the Macquarie Point stadium raises questions about the credibility of the Rockliff Government’s stadium EOI process and decision making.
Webuild – who are part of the Constructure Joint Venture group bidding for the stadium contract – are trying to “gouge” millions from the NSW Government over blowouts on the Western Sydney Airport Metro project. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this company’s bad practises causing budget blowouts on projects, raising questions as to why the Liberals are allowing them to participate in the stadium tender process at all.
Webuild have recently come under fire for its contractor Future Form’s dodgy dealings on the Western Sydney Airport Metro. The NSW Transport Minister had to commission an investigation into the contractor, which found suspicious underpayments, tax fraud, inadequate workers’ compensation and safety breaches.
Now Webuild’s bad practises are on show again, as they try to “gouge” an extra $2.2 billion from the NSW Government to cover cost blowouts, according to the government. Webuild have put a slowdown on work on the project, effectively halving workers’ take-home pay and risking delaying its opening.
But unfortunately, Webuild’s conduct on the Western Sydney Airport Metro project is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their poor practises. The contractor has really bad record when it comes to managing projects within time and budget and looking after workers.
On the Snowy 2.0 project, Webuild been ordered to produce a comprehensive assessment of costs as the project will further exceed its budget, already blown out from $2 billion to $12 billion. Productivity underperformance and work stoppages due to safety concerns are key reasons behind the blowouts. In one incident, a ventilation fan imploded and expelled metal shrapnel, requiring the commissioning of an independent safety review.
The company had a number of serious safety incidents on the Perth Airport Link, which led to $350,000 in fines from WorkSafe and long delays. The worst incidents involved the detachment of a compressed air hose which broke every bone in a worker’s face, and another worker suffering electrical burns to 38% of his body after a crane came too close to a powerline. Unions have accused the company of strategic underbidding.
On the Victorian North East Link Road, which blew out from $16 billion to $26 billion, WeBuild faced questions about its response to alleged corruption and gangland infiltration of the project. Complaints were made third parties had to pay bribes to win contracts, and corrupt practices were enabled. A test which shouldn’t have been carried out also caused a sinkhole on a nearby sports oval, raising community concern about the project.
The list of Webuild’s construction problems, worker safety issues and cost blowouts goes on.* It raises serious questions as to why the Liberal Government has approved them to be a part of the tender process for the Macquarie Point Stadium at all. Has credible due diligence been done on this company or were they ushered through to create the pretence of competitive tension in the stadium construction tender process.
All this evidence begs the question, are the Liberals seriously happy to entertain the possibility of construction issues and unsafe working conditions causing massive budget blowouts, like in other state’s who’ve used Webuild as a contractor?
The Mac Point site is a sensitive and constrained construction site and the Rockliff Government has serious questions to answer about the stadium tender process, and their approach to the construction process going forward.
A full breakdown of Webuild’s reported budget blowouts, safety issues and construction problems can be found here.
