Webuild’s bid for the Macquarie Point stadium contract must be terminated given new revelations it is facing criminal charges in NSW over a serious workplace safety incident and the company’s apparent failure to disclose court proceedings as is required by the stadium EOI process.
Webuild is set to face criminal charges brought by the NSW safety regulator in court in coming weeks, over allegations a senior manager ordered workers to keep running Snowy Hydro’s tunnel boring machine despite it being broken, which caused a large drill bit to fall on two men. SafeWork alleges the workers could have been killed.
The existence of these charges alone is enough to add to the many serious questions over Webuild’s ability to manage the stadium project. Webuild have been accused of a string of dodgy practises on interstate projects, including covering up its contractor’s suspicious underpayments, tax fraud and inadequate workers’ compensation on the Western Sydney Airport Metro.
Under questioning by the Greens, Minister Eric Abetz told Budget Estimates that “there were no observed or reported outstanding probity issues” arising out of the EOI process. But these criminal charges relate to litigation which was active as early as April 2025, and Webuild would have been required to disclose “disputes which [were] on foot and subject to litigation”.
Minister Abetz’s answer suggests these proceedings were not disclosed by Webuild in their EOI. The suggestion Webuild failed to disclose this active litigation is almost as concerning as the criminal charges themselves. In light of this, how can they be trusted to deliver the stadium project?
On top of all this is yet more disturbing revelations from NSW, with The Australian last week reporting Webuild “flushed thousands of litres of sewage-contaminated water into the environment rather than clean it up” with workers “forced to cross residue from the stinking stream of effluent when moving around the camp.”
This is not the type of company that should be considered for the biggest infrastructure project in Tasmania’s history. Webuild’s stadium bid should be terminated.
