The NSW government is ramping up the powers of the state's construction industry watchdog, in a move designed to crack down on union action and protect multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects from delays.
The move is a response to the federal Labor government's abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, after it argued it had become political and ineffective.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean on Tuesday said the commission played a key role in supporting construction and the state needed to step in to "fill the void".
"The benefits of our record infrastructure pipeline will be felt far and wide and we cannot allow Labor's sabotage of a successful regulatory framework to put those projects and jobs in jeopardy," he said.
"Proper regulation of the construction industry is a crucial part of the Liberals and Nationals delivering for the people of NSW."
The head of the powerful construction union says the plan will give a free pass to developers without addressing ongoing safety issues in the construction industry.
"(Premier Dominic) Perrottet wants to enforce a system where workers and unions face million-dollar fines for standing up for safety or demanding fair pay, while the companies that kill workers and destroy families get away with literal murder," CFMEU NSW Construction Secretary Darren Greenfield said.
"Under the discredited ABCC, safety went backwards on NSW construction sites.
"That's what happens when you have an industry regulator that is more worried about swearing on building sites than workers being killed and maimed."
The government's plan includes doubling the budget of the state's Construction Compliance Unit to $2.6 million, increasing unannounced site visits and overseeing a review of its current guidelines.
The unit is in charge of monitoring construction companies as they bid for tenders.
Employee Relations Minister Damien Tudehope said after the dissolution of the ABCC, the government felt "obliged to step in and strengthen the compliance unit".
Tweaks to the unit's policy could reign in historical oversight powers held by construction unions, including the ability to gather information about workers, he said.
"There are practices where unions demand the names of all the employees who start on a particular site ... we would be outlawing that sort of practice."
The new guidelines will mitigate risks across the government's infrastructure pipeline, costed at $116 billion over the next four years.
Master Builders Association executive director Brian Seidler welcomed the announcement.
"After 31 years of having a regulator in one form or another, we were ... simply abandoned without proper reasoning," he said.
"The industry is especially vulnerable to unethical and illegal behaviour, and as such requires special measures in order to deter illegal behaviour."
NSW Labor has pledged to overhaul building and construction in the state by creating a building commission and appointing a new building minister.
