As the Fair Work Commission National Registered Organisation for Civil Infrastructure, Australia’s peak voice for the civil construction industry, the Civil Contractors Federation (CCF), has welcomed the appointment of Senator Murray Watt to Workplace Relations and Andrew Giles MP to Skills and Training portfolios and commends outgoing Ministers Tony Burke and Brendan O’Connor.
CCF welcomes incoming Minister for Workplace Relations Murray Watt and Minister for Skills and Training Andrew Giles MP and calls on their leadership in support of civil infrastructure workplaces and training prioritisation.
Safe, stable and lawful industrial settings are a non-negotiable in 2024 for civil contracting industry in our efforts in building roads, highways, subdivisions, bridges, ports, rail, water, sewerage and energy infrastructure. Establishing assurance and confidence for industry will be a first 100 day actionable for Minister Watt.
Whilst the Federal Government has sent a welcomed message that threat, intimidation and illegal activity will not be tolerated, the leadership of Minister Watt in this period ahead will be critical to seeing workplaces being assured as being safe, productive and free of intimidation.
CCF will work closely with incoming Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles to ensure that civil trades building complex projects are fully recognised, prioritised and incentivized. “There are many civil industry trades that require prioritisation to ensure we have the skills on the ground. Investment in this period ahead of the election in training for civil occupations can either simplify or complicate the cost-of-living equation for all future governments to build community enabling infrastructure.
It will be the breakthrough Australians are crying out for our country to re-engineer skills priorities towards building community enabling civil infrastructure to create roads, subdivision, water, sewerage and energy services with lower household cost, less commute and housing build targets finally tackled at the front end.
The CCF extends its gratitude to Minister O’Connor for his remarkable 20 years of dedicated service and steadfast commitment to enhancing the skills and capabilities of Australia’s workforce.
We also extend our gratitude to Senator Carol Brown for her invaluable contributions as Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Her dedicated advocacy for investment in infrastructure projects and improvement of transport systems has been greatly appreciated by the civil infrastructure sector.
