KEEP COAST IN PICTURE

IN the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke there is a classic line uttered by one of the lead characters: “What we have got here is a failure to communicate.’’

And that appears to have been the case yesterday when panic set in as the developer of the $1 billion-plus Jewel project at Surfers Paradise dropped a construction bombshell, confirming aspects of the project – with its already iconic triple towers – had been delayed by a redesign and a new tendering process was being opened to complete the job.

Rumours that local workers might be replaced by an imported cheaper workforce swept across the Gold Coast.

But a large amount of that angst might have been avoided had someone from the Yuhu Group stepped up early and fully explained what was going on.

Yuhu told the Bulletin late yesterday it had no intention of wholesale replacement of workers on the site. It said Multiplex remained the construction contractor, but did concede there might be changes to elements of the workforce.

Having entered the project when it was well underway, the developer has different ideas to what was originally planned and says it is modifying the design. So while aspects of the project are paused to put changes into action, Multiplex might have to lay people off in the interim. Unfortunately this is an element of the industry.

But yesterday’s unease across the construction sector was a case study in the need to be upfront in explaining change.

Overall, the Jewel project is one that is creating jobs on the Gold Coast and contributing in a big way to the city’s lifeblood industry, tourism. The Gold Coast should be able to look forward to the project continuing to employ construction workers until it is completed, and for Jewel to generate jobs into the future. What the developer told the Bulletin late yesterday is encouraging. It is to be hoped that communications with the workforce and indeed the Gold Coast public can now be as transparent as possible as the project continues.