On the subject of income, welfare support and spending

Will negative wage growth, the acute poverty of jobless people combined with the avarice of employers and punitive federal government policy intesect to create a perect storm which will see household spending fall this year?   

Current state of play......

ABC News, 23 February 2019:

Rather, Dr Lowe saw stagnant household incomes is a much bigger threat to consumer spending, and thus to the 60 per cent of the economy based on it.

"Aggregate household income used to grow at 6 per cent, it's growing sub-3," he told the MPs on the committee.

"That's a big difference, and you accumulate that over three or four years and income is 8, 10 or 12 per cent lower than it otherwise would have been.

"Many people borrowed assuming their incomes would grow at the old rate and they haven't.

"They're having more difficulty, they've got less free cash and so they can't spend, so this is why I've put so much emphasis on the need for a pick-up in wage growth."

Dr Lowe told the committee he has been using speeches to try and lift wage expectations, while the RBA has been keeping interest rates low and stable for an extended period of time to relieve the pressure on households.

The RBA governor said, while the strategy seems to be working — with unemployment down at 5 per cent and wage growth starting to pick up from recent lows — he could use a bit more help from the Fair Work Commission and employers.

Fair Work last year awarded a 3.5 per cent pay rise for those on the minimum wage and linked awards, and Dr Lowe said that was a "sensible and right policy" and a similar increase this year "makes a lot of sense".

"If workers get their normal long-run share of that [productivity increase] then their real wages should rise by 1 per cent a year," he said.

Financial Review,  7 February 2019:

Consumer anxiety has reached its highest level in three years, with households spending less on discretionary items as they worry about their finances and the future.

The National Australia Bank consumer anxiety index rose to 62 points in the December quarter, and close to 40 per cent of those surveyed said they had experienced financial hardship during the quarter – the highest level in two years.

Households said they had pulled back their spending on things like travel, eating out and entertainment due to heightened anxiety about their financial conditions.

The primary causes of anxiety through the December quarter were how to finance one's retirement and how to provide for one's family's future....

"What's happening here is you haven't got much wages growth, you're paying off utilities, you're paying off debt, and you're doing things that you have to do."

Mr Oster said after doing all those things, there wasn't much money left for households.

Anxiety about job security reached its highest level since 2016, and 50 per cent of homes in hardship found their financial position impacted by high utility bills.

The Guardian, 17 September 2018:

A proposal to increase Newstart allowance by $75 a week would lead to a boost in consumer spending, creating more than 10,000 jobs and lifting wages, a new report shows.

The report by Deloitte Access Economics, released on Monday morning, said the policy to increase the incomes of more than 700,000 people by $10.71 a day would cost the federal budget $3.3bn a year.

But a “prosperity dividend” would see the government collect an extra $1bn in taxes as a result of a stronger economy, and the proposal was also projected to create 12,000 extra jobs in 2020-21 and increase wages by 0.2%.

It comes amid debate about the rate of Newstart, which at $272.90 for a single person has not risen in real terms in more than two decades. It will increase by $2.20 this week as a result of indexation.

The Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss), business groups, unions and a former prime minister, John Howard, have all argued for an increase, but the government has so far dismissed those calls….

The bulk of the economic benefits from increasing the payment would go to the bottom 5% of Australian income earners, who would receive “six times the dollars going to the highest income quintile”. The “poorest of the poor” would receive 28 times the relative boost to their disposable incomes, than the top income quintile.

Regional areas “most in need of help” would be key winners from increased spending….

The current rate is the equivalent to living on $38.99 a day. The report said a single person who also receives the maximum rent assistance and the energy supplement would be living on about $49.24 a day.

Previous research has shown that those on Newstart live on as little as $17 a day after their housing expenses and bills.

ABC NEWS, 9 September 2018:

It may not have garnered the same attention as the surprisingly strong second-quarter GDP growth, but an equally striking fact in last week's national accounts was household savings had just hit a post-GFC low.

It is not a new phenomenon. The household saving ratio — or the ratio of households' net saving to disposable income — has been shrinking since 2014.

What makes the latest figure uncomfortable is that there is now little fat left to trim, and on current trends households will be spending more they earn.

The ability of the Australian economy to keep growing in the face of a number of challenges in recent years owes a fair bit to the savings so prudently built up after the sobering experience of the GFC.

As JP Morgan's Tom Kennedy points out, the persistent decline in savings since 2014 has been an important part of Australia's real GDP growth performance, helping offset some of the spending drag associated with record low wages growth and an unemployment rate that has yet to fire up wages.

While the correlation between savings and spending is far from perfect, Mr Kennedy has drilled down into the figures, and is worried.

Inequality writ large in the NSW hospitality industry as a company grows wealthy by denying a fair rate of pay to its workforce

Multimillionaire Justin Hemmes comes from a privileged background having inherited the bulk of his wealth rather than earned it independently of the family company.

Yet as CEO of M.R.V.L. Investments Pty Ltd since March 2015 at which point the Merivale portfolio was said to contain more than 50 restaurants, bars, pubs and hotels in Sydney, with an estimated value of more than $1 billion he kept the family company’s wages bill so low for est. 3,000 employees - lawfully so under a Howard Government Workchoices-era collective agreement - that words fail me.

Merivale.com, retrieved 22 January 2019:

Owned and run by the Hemmes family for over 60 years, Merivale began as an iconic fashion house started by John and Merivale Hemmes. Merivale’s fashionable beginnings were soon followed by a venture into hospitality, opening a Thai tea café within their Sydney CBD fashion building in 1970. From here, Merivale’s hospitality roots were firmly planted.

Merivale is now led by CEO Justin Hemmes, whose creativity and knack for pushing the boundaries has made Merivale what it is today. Hemmes has become a pioneer within the Australian hospitality industry, growing the ever-expanding Merivale portfolio to over 70 brands and venues.

Financial Review, 23 May 2018:

Prominent Sydney hotelier Justin Hemmes has ridden the property boom all the way to this year's Rich List.

Hemmes and his family have amassed a $951 million fortune via the ownership of 70 pubs, hotels, restaurants and venues in and around Sydney, including The Ivy on George Street in the heart of the CBD.

He joins the biggest group of Rich Listers, property magnates, who this year account for 51 of the 200 names. Hemmes also just misses being among the record 76 billionaires on the list.

ABC News, 12 November 2018:

The drinking and dining empire led by high-profile Sydney hotelier Justin Hemmes is facing a push to kill off a workplace agreement that some current and former staff say denies them weekend penalty rates……

A former Merivale staff member, Maddie Lucre, raised concerns about being denied weekend penalty rates.

Ms Lucre worked at the Coogee Pavilion from January 2016 until July this year. With the assistance of United Voice, where she works in an admin role, Ms Lucre made a claim against Merivale for the weekend and public holiday amounts she claimed was owed to her under the company's agreement.

She was offered $2,706.72, the amount she claimed she was owed, on the condition that she sign a non-disclosure agreement. No admissions of fault were made by Merivale.

"I know that if I keep my mouth shut then no-one's going to find out about this," Ms Lucre told 7.30.

"Merivale has never been held to account for the fact that they are potentially underpaying people."

Financial Review, 21 January 2019:

Merivale is reviewing the viability of its business practices due to the axing of a WorkChoices-era enterprise agreement that gave it a significant commercial advantage in the industry.

The Fair Work Commission on Monday terminated Merivale's long-expired 2007 EA that allowed the hospitality giant to pay some 3000 workers below the award – more than 20 per cent below in some cases – by not applying overtime or full penalty rates for almost a decade.

The decision, which will not take effect until March to give Merivale time to transition to the award, is the result of United Voice taking action on behalf of two casuals who complained they were missing out on thousands of dollars a year……

Ms Tones, quoted by the union's submissions, said that 71 per cent of the company's workforce were casuals and 48 per cent worked on some form of visa.

Under the agreement, casuals were not paid full evening, weekend and public holiday rates or even overtime.

United Voice said one employee was paid $6 an hour less than the award on Saturdays, $10 an hour less on Sundays and $25 an hour less.

The Fair Work Commission having found on 21 January this year it would not be contrary to the public interest to terminate Merivale Employee Collective Agreement 2007 which had passed its nominal expiry date of 21 December 2012, Merivale now appears to be hinting that if it were to pay proper award rates to all its workforce it might have to close one or more businesses because it may not be able to afford a higher wages bill.

Again, words fail me.

NOTE: Justin Hemmes joined Twitter in March 2010 as @justinhemmes. Although he seems to have tired of the account sometime in 2014 it is still active and Twitter will allow civilised comments on this site.

State of Play: NSW North Coast Employment Opportunities

It's a brand new year but in regional New South Wales the old issues followed us past midnight on 31 December 2018.

Employment opportunities - where will our unemployed and underemployed people find a job in 2019 and beyond?

This is how the old year ended.....

NSW North Coast -Summary Data

List of summary data inNorth Coast
Data Name	Data Value
Unemployment Rate (15+):	6.1%
Unemployed (15+):	7,000
Total jobactive Caseload (15+):	10,643
Youth jobactive Caseload (15-24):	1,779
Mature Age jobactive Caseload (50+):	3,562

Download Summary Data in Excel

http://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/GainInsights/VacancyReport

The future appears to be a mixed bag for the NSW North Coast over the next twenty-four years. 

At which point the population may have reached somewhere in the vicinity of 400,000 residents.

However, it is expected there will be a drop in employment levels across Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing on the North Coast.

While Manufacturing only grows slightly in the Richmond-Tweed region and remains static same elsewhere.

Wholesale Trade remains steady in Tweed-Richmond with up to 300 new jobs, but is projected to go backwards in Coffs Harbour-Grafton over the next 24 years.

Retail Trade is predicted to grow modestly across the North Coast, with 900 new jobs predicted.

The Accommodation and Food Services sector is expected to show unspectacular growth right across the North Coast regions with only 900 additional jobs.

Administrative and Support Services employment is projected to rise - but only by 700 jobs up to 2023 and Public Administration & Safety are only expected to add 300 jobs over that same time period.

The Education sector is expected to grow by 700 jobs.

Information, Media & Telecommunications is expected to grow by 8.4% but it will take 24 years to achieve this small improvement on May 2018 figures and barely represents an est. 100 jobs overall.

Financial and Insurance sector employment opportunities are expected to diminish across the regions, but there are expected to be 500 more jobs in the Professional, Scientific & Technical Services.

Transport, Postal & Warehousing employment is predicted to remain at near present levels.

The Mining sector is not expected to grow past May 2018 levels on the North Coast from the Clarence Valley up to the NSW-Queensland border taking in all seven Northern Rivers local government areas.

However Construction employment is expected to grow by 15-16% by 2023 across the region. This represents est. 3,000 more jobs above May 2018 numbers.

Healthcare & Social Assistance is also predicted to grow by 3,900-4,000 available positions by 2023.

See the following Labour Market Information Portal links for further employment projections for regional Australia, including the NSW North Coast:

Employment projections for the five years to May 2023

Each year, the Department of Jobs and Small Business produces employment projections by industry, occupation, skill level and region for the following five-year period. These employment projections are designed to provide a guide to the future direction of the labour market, however, like all such exercises, they are subject to an inherent degree of uncertainty.

The 2018 employment projections are based on the forecasted and projected total employment growth rates published in the 2018-19 Budget, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) data (June 2018) for total employment, and the quarterly detailed LFS data (May 2018) for industry employment data.

2018 Industry Employment Projections Report (Word) (245.0KB)

Industry projections – five years to May 2023 (Excel) (49.3KB)

Occupation projections – five years to May 2023 (Excel) (80.4KB)

Skill Level projections – five years to May 2023 (Excel) (24.6KB)

Regional projections – interactive tool (Excel) (2.2MB)

Regional projections – five years to May 2023 (Excel) (921.3KB)

2018 Gender Employment Projections Report (Word) (116.7KB)

Just three months out from a state election and the NSW Berejiklian Government decides to introduce a new punative public housing policy guaranteed to upset a good many voters

In 2016 est. 37,715 people in New South Wales were recorded as homeless on Census Night.

The following year the NSW Berejiklian Coalition Government had a public housing stock total of 110,221 dwellings and an est. 60,000 people on the Dept. of Housing 2017 waiting list.

Below is the state government’s answer to the effects of decreasing public housing stock and federal Coalition Government cuts to public housing funding allocations to the states - introduce a new initiative under the 'Opportunity Pathways' program which will cut the housing waiting list by increasing eligibility restrictions, privatise service delivery to certain categories of public housing applicants and tenants in order to ensure that vulnerable individuals and families are discouraged from seeking housing assistance.

The Daily Telegraph, 7 December 2018, p.2:

Public housing applicants will have to get a job if they want a taxpayer-funded home under a tough new test to be introduced in NSW.

The state government is overhauling the public housing system by stopping residents who languish on welfare for decades feeling entitled to a cheap home, paid for by the taxpayer, for their entire life.

Currently less than a quarter of social housing tenants are in the workforce. There are about 55,000 people on the public housing waitlist in NSW, and under the new program they will be able to skip the queue if they agree to get a job.

But if they get into the home then fail to get a job or maintain work they will be booted from the property.

Once they are secure in a job they will then move into the private rental market and out of the welfare system.

Social Housing Minister Pru Goward said the program will “help break the cycle of disadvantage”.

“This is about equipping tenants with the skills they need to not only obtain a job, but keep it over the longer term and achieve their full potential,” she said.

“We also want to set to a clear expectation that social housing is not for life and, for those who can work, social housing should be used as a stepping stone to moving into the private rental market.” The new program will be trialled in Punchbowl and Towradgi, near Wollongong, for three years across 20 properties. Its success will be evaluated over this time and it’s likely the program will be expanded across the state.

Homes will be leased for six months at a time, with renewal dependent on the resident maintaining their job or education, such as TAFE, and meeting agreed goals within the plan.

NSW eTendering:

RFT ID FACS.18.30

RFT Type Expression of Interest for Specific Contracts

Published 23-Aug-2018

Closes 27-Sep-2018 2:00pm

Category (based on UNSPSC)
93140000 - Community and social services

Agency FACS Central Office

Tender Details

The NSW Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) from non-government organisatons with the capability to deliver the Opportunity Pathways program.

Opportunity Pathways is designed for social housing tenants and their household members, approved social housing applicants and clients receiving Rent Choice subsidies who aspire and have the capacity to, with the appropriate support, gain, retain and increase employment.

The program is voluntary and uses a person-centred case management approach to provide wrap-around support and facilitate participant access to services to achieve economic and housing independence (where appropriate).

The objectives of the program are to:

assist participants to gain, retain or increase employment, by accessing supports and practical assistance, and by participating in education, training and work opportunities

encourage and support participants to positively exit social housing or Rent Choice subsidies to full housing independence, to reduce their reliance on governement assistance, where appropriate

Please refer to the Program Guidelines for further details.

Opportunity Pathways will run for three years and delivered across NSW in those locations where a need and service gaps are identified.

The program will be delivered by one or more providers following an EOI and Select Tender.

Location

NSW Regions: Far North Coast, Mid North Coast, New England, Central Coast, Hunter, Cumberland/Prospect, Nepean, Northern Sydney, Inner West, South East Sydney, South West Sydney, Central West, Orana/Far West, Riverina/Murray, Illawarra, Southern Highlands

Estimated Value

From $0.00 to $36,100,000.00

RFT Type

Expression of Interest for Specific Contracts - An invitation for Expression of Interest (EOI) for pre-registration of prospective tenderers for a specific work or service. Applicants are initially evaluated against published selection criteria, and those who best meet the required criteria are invited to Tender (as tender type Pre-Qualified/Invited). [my yellow highlighting]

As of June 2018 in NSW there were 200,564 people registered with Centrelink whose income was Newstart Allowance and, by September there were only est. 82,400 job vacancies available as the Internet Vacancy Index had been falling since April 2018. The number of job vacancies were still falling in October 2018 to 66,000 job vacancies.

Just three months out from a state election and it doesn't appear that the Berejiklian Cabinet or other Liberal and Nationals members of the NSW Parliament have thought this new policy through to its logical conclusion.

This is the man Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison admires because of his trade policies

Almost everyone could see this coming except US President Donald Trump and he had been repeatedly warned that his imposition of tariffs, using anti-globalisation sentiment as an excuse, would spring back and hit American manufacturing where it hurts.

Almost everyone – but not Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison who on 17 September 2018 was quoted thus:

Spruiking the kind of populist credentials that swept Trump to power, Morrison said many people in both the US and Australia feel left behind by the powerful economic forces of globalisation, which have brought massive wealth to some but left others feeling poorer and disenfranchised.

“That’s what we get. The president gets that. I get it,” the prime minister told the Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

Morrison described Trump as “very practical” and as someone “who’s not going to waste a day”.

“I like that about him. I like that about him a lot, actually.’’

Here is that oh so “very practical” Donald Trump this week.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 November 2018:

On Monday local time, the iconic carmaker announced it would close assembly plants in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland and in the Canadian province of Ontario. The cuts amount to almost 15 per cent of the General Motors workforce.

A big part of Trump's appeal in the so-called "rust belt" in the midwest was his promise to bring back stable and well-paying manufacturing jobs, especially in the auto industry. The General Motors plant at Lordstown, Ohio, is located in a county that recorded a 29 percentage point swing towards Trump at the 2016 election.

So before heading to Mississipi for a campaign rally, Trump said he had expressed his displeasure to General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra.

"I was very tough," Trump said. "I spoke with her and I said, 'This country has done a lot for General Motors – you'd better get back in there soon.' That's Ohio.

"They say the Chevy Cruze is not selling well. I say, 'Well get a car that is selling well and put it back in' ... I'm not happy about it."

Trump said he expected General Motors to start manufacturing another type of car in Ohio and that it "had better" do so.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Trump said he told General Motors: "You’re playing around with the wrong person."

Trump will this week travel to Argentina for G20 meetings, where he will hold a highly-anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping focussed on trade.

At the height of the Global Financial Crisis, General Motors received a government bailout that eventually cost US taxpayers $US11.2 billion ($15.5 billion in today's money).

But the President has slapped a 25 per cent tariff on imported steel from China, which automakers said has already increased commodity costs, and threatened more including on auto parts. Car manufacturers said earlier in the year that tariffs could bring job losses.

Trump has since boasted about a renaissance in the industry thanks to his tax cuts and the removal of environmental regulations put in place by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.

In a tweet about Michigan in August he said: "Lots of car and other companies moving back!"

In 2017 he said high-quality manufacturing jobs were no longer leaving Ohio.

"They’re all coming back," he said at a rally in the state. "Don’t move. Don’t sell your house."

Will a minority Morrison Government be forced to raise Newstart & Youth Allowances?

Depending on where you live in New South Wales the unemployment rate in September 2018 ranged from 2% to 9%, while youth unemployment went from 4% to 24%.

At the same time employment growth was -3% to barely 10%.

Which means that in September there were est. 195,300 job seekers on Centrelink's books in NSW and only est. 82,400 job vacancies available.

Centrelink Newstart Allowance for a single jobseeker is currently $275.10 per week and Youth Allowance is $222.90 per week for a single jobseeker under 21 years of age.

The million dollar question many people struggling on meagre unemployment benefits in rural and regional NSW will be asking themselves is whether Adam Bandt, Cathy McGowan, Kerryn Phelps, Andrew Wilkie, Rebekha Sharkie, and Bob Katter will use the increased bargaining power which comes to the crossbench in a minority government to force the government's hand on this welfare payment issue. Or will they turn to water?

Here is where the crossbench stands now.....

The NewDaily, 16 November 2018:

Pressure is mounting on the Coalition government to raise the Newstart rate following unanimous lower house crossbench support for a $75 increase.

The Guardian, 16 November 2018:

The entire lower house crossbench has come out in favour of an increase to Newstart, prompting Australia’s peak body for the community services sector to accuse the major parties of being out of touch.

Bob Katter outlined his support for an increase to the unemployment benefit on Friday, saying it would help tackle malnutrition in Indigenous communities.

His statement follows Rebekha Sharkie calling for an increase earlier this week, while the new Wentworth MP Kerryn Phelps committed to raising the payment in a candidates’ survey during the byelection campaign.

Cassandra Goldie, the chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, said the “diverse crossbench’s unity on increasing Newstart confirms just how out of touch the major parties are on this issue”.

“When Adam Bandt, Cathy McGowan, Kerryn Phelps, Andrew Wilkie, Rebekha Sharkie, and Bob Katter all agree, it’s time to stop talking and act,” she said.

Katter said the payment was insufficient for those in regional Queensland, where the cost of finding a job was high.

“If you’re outside of Brisbane, it’s no car, no job,” he said.

Increasing the dole “would go a long way to enabling First Australians to buy fresh fruit and vegetables”.

“You’ve crucified us with the cost of food, you’ve crucified us with the cost of electricity,” he said. “We can’t possibly live on Newstart.”

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has said the government had no plans to increase the payment – currently $275.10 a week – despite an improved budget position, saying “I don’t think you can all of a sudden go ‘oh, let’s make whoopee’”.

He said earlier this month that the government would be more inclined to increase the pension, which stands at $458.15 a week. The pension was increased during the Gillard government while Newstart was last raised in real terms in 1994.

Labor has not committed to lifting Newstart, but signalled it would use a “root and branch review” to argue for an increase.

NSW Roads & Maritime Services bungling and corrupt in 2018?

NSW Minister for Roads Maritime and Freight has a policy of sending IT jobs offshore?

With the national unemployment rate running at 5.4 per cent nationally in June 2018 and the New South Wales rate sitting at 4.8 per cent or 192,000 people, is the Minister for Roads Maritime and Freight & Nationals MP for Oxley Melinda Pavey secretly closing off employment opportunities for Australian information technology workers as a departmental cost-cutting measure?

These are not exactly the highest paying jobs in this country, averaging $46,000-$100,000 pa and, with the IT worker pool standing at est. 600,000+ nationally it is not as though there is an obvious scarcity of skilled workers available for hire.

So at first it was not easy to explain this...... 

The Daily Telegraph, 20 July 2018. P.2:

Leaked details of a meeting between Roads and Maritime­ Services and seven companies bidding for a $100 million IT contract contradict­ state government denials that it mandated a 30 per cent quota of cut-price overseas workers.

The February 13 meeting, convened by chief information officer Rob Putter, came six days after the RMS called for tenders to provide IT services, on the condition that a “minimum” of 20 per cent of jobs would be sent overseas in the first year and 30 per cent in the second year.

Three Indian firms, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra, attended the meeting along with Fujitsu, Datacom, Accenture and Wollongong company itree, with 25 people in the room and 18 dialling in.

A source who attended the meeting said Mr Putter showed a PowerPoint slide titled RMS Pricing Principles which stated the RMS was “seeking to achieve the lowest­ possible cost” to provide­ the IT service.

The slide stated RMS’s “target offshore resource utilisation­” required 20 per cent of jobs offshore in year one, 30 per cent in year two and a “measured ongoing ­app­roach to increase offshore efforts” over the rest of the seven-year contract.

Photocopies of the slide were provided to attendees, who “discussed at length ... the need to offshore resources (jobs)”, the source said.

“The RMS personnel stated that it was mandated by the (Roads) Minister that to achieve the lowest price they need to seek offshore resources,” the source said. 

“This clearly makes a joke of the Minister’s denial that this tender mandated offshoring.” As The Daily Telegraph revealed last week, the RMS had called for companies to provide “development, testing, maintenance and service management for transport-related software applications and in-the-field hardware”.…..

The RMS announced Mr Putter’s resignation last week.

Despite NSW Government denials, the fact remains that it is highly likely that jobs were to be sourced overseas as the RMS IT operational budget blowout had reached $80 million in the 12 months to June 2018, following a $40 million blowout in the operational budget in the previous financial year.

It appears that Roads and Maritime Services has bungled its $1 billion IT systems upgrade with more bad news expected.

Dollars for mates?

Crikey.com.au, 2 August 2018:

New South Wales transport consultancy firm MU Group [MURPHY UDAYAN GROUP*] 

is under fire after six government contracts, none of which went to public tender, were awarded to the company after it hired former state roads minister 

Duncan Gay.

The Daily Telegraph ($) reports that the firm has been awarded contracts from the Roads and Maritime Services agency worth over $4.46 million after hiring the former department head as an “executive adviser” just weeks after Gay left parliament in late 2017. The firm has reportedly hired at least 11 former Roads and Maritime Services staff members, including two as directors, however Gay says he has “not been involved in any RMS contracts that MU have won”.

* Director and Founder of the MU Group Matthew Murphy is a former Roads and Maritime Service civil engineer in Project/Contract Management with extensive experience on infrastructure projects for urban roads, highways including Pacific Highway Upgrades.