Acciona boss Bede Noonan not worried about worker shortage as contractor readies for power and defence builds

The national boss of contracting giant Acciona has knocked back concerns about a Western Australian worker shortage as he reveals the company’s plans to chase AUKUS work and energy transition projects. Acciona local infrastructure chief Bede Noonan wants to dramatically scale up the Spanish company’s order book on the west coast as work finishes up on the Armadale rail line and Bunbury Outer Ring Road. Mr Noonan spoke to The West Australian this week as the State Government touted construction progress on the $2.8 billion Alkimos desalination plant, with Acciona head builder. The business is now readying to build new electricity transmission lines in support of the State Government’s hopes to bring on green energy and switch off coal by 2030. Power deals and the huge upgrades needed to prepare for AUKUS and nuclear submarines would potentially triple the company’s revenue in WA, Mr Noonan predicted. Energy was a centrepiece of Treasurer Rita Saffioti’s big spending June budget which promised $13 billion for power and water. Those plans drew fire from economists warning the cash splash would add pressure on the State’s labour shortage, and pull workers from home building into government-sponsored projects. Mr Noonan knocked back the concerns in an interview with The West Australian in Perth this week. He was more worried that State Governments across the country were tapering off a major boom of investment into road and rail infrastructure. “Governments are (cooling) off their civil infrastructure spending,” Mr Noonan said. “There’s certainly not an oversupply of work.” The bigger issue for the construction sector would be getting clarity over the Government’s plans for new transmission lines, he said, including when and where they will be built. He said builders would need high confidence on planning for the new power links to retrain staff and develop local relationships with suppliers. “The skills are here,” Mr Noonan said. “Skills can be taken from civil infrastructure into (building) transmission lines.” Acciona will pitch for defence work amid plans for major investment into Henderson and HMAS Stirling on Garden Island. The Commonwealth Government is mulling a consolidated defence precinct to enable continuous shipbuilding at Henderson, which could reportedly cost as much as $20 billion. “We want to build it,” Mr Noonan said. Acciona is tipped as a potential buyer of the East Rockingham Resource Recovery Facility, a waste to energy plant in receivership. But the company may need to sell down its stake in the nearby Kwinana Waste to Energy Plant in order to resolve competition worries. The company’s power division is also planning a huge $1 billion wind farm near Collie named Bellwhether.

Acciona boss Bede Noonan not worried about worker shortage as contractor readies for power and defence builds

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