Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia has acknowledged that the Queensland state budget’s focus on infrastructure will boost confidence in the heavy construction materials industry.
The Queensland state budget has committed $56 billion in capital works and infrastructure investment across four years.
It is focused on driving the largest infrastructure program in more than a decade with $14.8 billion to be spent in 2020-21.
An estimated 46,000 jobs will be supported by infrastructure expenditure between 2020 and 2021, with $6.3 billion to be spent on roads and transport infrastructure, $1 billion on building trains over 10 years and $526 million spent on social housing in 2020-21.
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia’s (CCAA) Queensland state director Aaron Johnstone said the infrastructure announcements add certainty to the state’s construction materials industry.
“The infrastructure commitments in the Queensland Budget will reassure and provide more certainty for our sector’s business owners and workers who supply the materials for the state, including thousands of concrete batchers, truck drivers and heavy machinery operators, contractors, equipment suppliers, plant and site managers, product technicians and all their support teams,” he said.
The CCAA has also welcomed the announcements of $265 million in seven satellite hospitals and $654 million in the expansion of the Southern Queensland Correctional Precinct.
Johnstone encouraged the state government to provide a policy approach on construction materials to protect quarries from incompatible developments.
“It’s important for government to continue to work closely with the industry to ensure a timely and sustained cost-effective delivery of its four-year program, especially to ensure the efficient supply of cement, concrete, stone and sand into the future,” he said.
“As set out in our pre-election policy agenda – Supporting Queensland in uncertain times – we strongly urge a cohesive policy approach on construction materials, such as measures to protect quarries from incompatible development, support for the approval of new sites, and other measures to improve efficiency and lower business costs.”
The CCAA’s national chief executive officer Ken Slattery said the budget highlights the importance of construction and infrastructure investment for Queensland’s economic strategy.
“The Government’s Budget Papers remind Queenslanders that there are still significant international headwinds impacting on the health of the economy, which means a focus on construction and infrastructure investment is a prudent economic strategy for the government to adopt going forward,” he said.
