The Lollipop Ladies

And, they said, the problem is made worse by the "push to complete projects on time."

Duh. You can imagine the reaction online when this article was published. Here's one scathing tweet.

Late last year the ABC had another whine about the unreasonable demands of the construction industry… "long hours, early starts and rigid schedules" and suggested putting "gender on the tender" - meaning that companies competing for government jobs must fulfill gender equity quotas.

Well, that's already happening, particularly in Victoria which requires women to make up 3% of trade positions in government projects over $20 million and the ACT which demands 10% female employment for government projects over $5 million. The federal government's 2024–25 Budget introduced "gender-responsive procurement," leveraging $330 billion in annual spending to promote equality-e.g., by favouring tenders with strong DEI plans.

Four years ago I wrote about the ACT government requiring successful tenders for the build of a new school to have a 100 per cent female management team on site. Given the dire problems of getting women into the construction trades, one solution is to push women into management and office/admin. Currently females handle 17% of such roles in the construction industry.

But the most visible and controversial women in construction are of course, the traffic controllers - those high-vis heroes of the roadworks universe, standing in the blazing sun or pouring rain, twirling their giant red-and-white lollipops like bored conductors of a very slow-moving orchestra.

In Australia we call the females of the species… the Lollipop Ladies.

Recently a book was published on The Dark Legacy of Daniel Andrews, which included a chapter on workplace relations by John Lloyd, who was the first Australian Building and Construction Commissioner. His section on construction in the Melbourne Metro Tunnel revealed traffic controllers are paid $126,200 but explained that's only the beginning. Night and weekend work attracts double time rates, plus numerous other work entitlements adding a further $540 every week to the cost of employing a single traffic controller.

According to Lloyd, it's all thanks to the construction unions, particularly the notorious Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), now being "off the leash". And that's due to the Labor government repaying the critical electoral support of the unions by abolishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), which kept them somewhat under control.

Everyone knows about the thuggery of these unions, with widespread allegations of systemic corruption, stand-over tactics, bribery and extortion on taxpayer funded construction sites. Everyone knows such issues have driven massive cost inflation and major delays in major infrastructure projects, especially Victoria's Big Build program. A recent investigation estimated CFMEU misconduct cost Victorians at least $15 billion.

The result is every time we drive past a roadworks site we see a couple of lollipop ladies standing around chatting on their phones or filming flirty TikToks, it's not just a bit of everyday irritation - it's a billboard for how we're all getting fleeced. These casual roles, often filled by young women earning exorbitant salaries thanks to union-mandated penalty rates and overstaffing rules, are the most visible symptom of the CFMEU's pernicious grip on construction.