TasBuild’s board says it will stop dealing directly with Housing Industry Association (HIA) executive director Benjamin Price until he publicly apologises for comments it calls “misogynistic”.
At a press conference on November 2, Price said making a former union secretary the independent chair of TasBuild was “like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank”.
He was criticising the appointment of Nicole Wells as TasBuild chair.
TasBuild is the private company that runs Tasmania’s compulsory long service leave scheme for construction workers under state law. Employers pay a levy of up to 2.5% of wages into the fund.
“We’re calling on the Tasmanian government to urgently intervene. We need to see change at TasBuild and we’ve been calling for it for too long,” Price said at the press conference.
In a letter dated November 5, seen by Pulse, the board said the Dracula comment “was misogynistic, disrespectful and entirely inappropriate for a senior representative of a professional industry association”.
“Such remarks have no place in modern workplaces or in an industry committed to increasing women’s participation,” the letter said.
“We consider Mr Price’s remarks to have crossed the line from legitimate criticism into misogynistic personal disparagement and we call on him to publicly apologise to Ms Wells.”
The letter was addressed to HIA Tasmania president Domonee van Heerden. It said TasBuild would deal with the HIA through her instead of Price until he apologised publicly.
The board said Wells was appointed after an “open and transparent recruitment process” and has its “unequivocal support”.
It said the board has three employer and three employee representatives. Wells sits above them as the independent, non-voting chair.
“The independence of the chair is established through this governance structure, regardless of who holds the position,” the letter said.
In a statement to Pulse, Price rejected the board’s accusation.
“I categorically reject the claim. My criticism is of the appointment – not Ms Wells personally – and would be exactly the same if the appointee were a male former senior union official,” he said.
“This is a cynical attempt to distract from the real issue, which is the independence of the TasBuild chair.”
“A former senior union official cannot credibly be the independent chair of TasBuild and this creates a real risk of effectively placing the unions in control of the $250 million of TasBuild money.”
Wells was state secretary of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) from 2010 to 2012. She later became a deputy president of the Fair Work Commission.
The HIA has called on Attorney-General Guy Barnett to step in and introduce a bill to overhaul TasBuild’s governance.
A spokesperson for Barnett earlier this month said the government was “aware of industry concerns” about TasBuild and was looking at “what can be done”.
Price said he would “not be backing down”.
“The board should reconsider the appointment for the good of the organisation and longer term, TasBuild’s governance should be overhauled to reflect contemporary standards as previously raised with government,” he said.
Wells was appointed on October 16 and her term expires on April 29, 2030.
