I know we are all incredibly proud of our community after what has been a pretty tough couple of weeks with the floods.
Whether you’re like the families in Waterford whose homes were inundated, or a member of sporting clubs like the Springwood Sharks Little Athletics whose grounds and buildings at Meadowbrook went under, it’s fair to say our community has taken a battering.
As Queensland’s Public Works Minister, I’m proud that our state’s government builder, QBuild – an employer of tradies and apprentices across Queensland – is playing a key role in getting our community and others back on their feet.
Restoration of community assets post national disaster is absolutely QBuild’s core business. That means tradies from our very own community are in schools, government buildings, and people’s homes as soon as the flood waters receded, commencing repairs so that life can get back to normal.
Tradies like Jackson, a second-year carpentry apprentice from Rochedale South who I met last week, are getting the restoration effort underway. He’s getting experience on the job while serving our state, on the front line, in our time of greatest need.
And whilst our roads and bridges, homes, buildings and parks have borne the brunt of the flood, I think our local kids need the most attention right now. We know they’ve experienced the upheaval of Covid-19 and recent interruptions to school, so getting things back to normal quickly is one of our top priorities across South East Queensland.
And when you think about our very own Logan locals who are helping not just our community but others right across our region, it reminds us why that saying “gotta love Logan” resonates with so many of us.
As well as rolling up their sleeves and mucking in at schools and government buildings, QBuild has been on the job since the rain eased, checking on locals living in public housing. They’ve been making sure the homes are safe and secure, and checking on tenants too.
I was out in Eagleby with our QBuild team assessing damage from the recent rain event and what struck me from talking to locals was that QBuild is much more than the nuts and bolts of property maintenance. The homes we were repairing are precious to our tenants – they hold years of memories – and with QBuild, they can rest assured help to secure their homes is always close at hand.
Just as everyone knows someone affected by the floods, or has been affected themselves, we all know someone who has been part of QBuild over the years or is working with QBuild now. As Minister, I’ve met many QBuild families, where two or even three generations built solid trades careers working with the government builder.
It almost wasn’t this way. Despite QBuild having been a pipeline of skilled tradies for decades, by the time I became Minister QBuild had been completely gutted by the previous government. It was not only an incredible loss to the industry, but to the Logan community where many of our QBuild team live.
When I set out to rebuild QBuild, disaster preparedness and restoration was my top consideration. We all know that we see more than our fair share of natural disasters around these parts, so having a well-resourced government builder means we have an army of tradies who can be called on at a moment’s notice.
And that’s why we’re really proud of taking on more tradies and apprentices like Jackson as our Logan community continues to grow.
So, QBuild isn’t just helping Queenslanders build trade careers, or clean up after a flood, it’s building local communities – now and for the future.
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