Our condolences to Les's wife Gail and his family and friends.
It is with great sadness that I write this tribute to Les Williams who passed away on Saturday after battling illness for some time.
Les Williams was without doubt the best thing that has ever happened to Queensland Subcontractors. No one has put in so much effort over such a long time to make the lives of subcontractors better than Les. Not even close.
I remember the first time Les contacted me after the Cullen liquidation in late December 2016, almost 11 years ago. I didn't know him and I didn't know if I could trust him because as I have said before, all subcontractors organsations in the past had been infiltrated and destroyed from within.
I knew nothing about Les but I soon learnt what an absolute Briton he was. His advice was invaluable at that time and even more so over the years. We couldn't have done what we did here at SubbiesUnited without Les and the few close advisors he introduced me to, Kevin and Rob you both know what I mean.
I have never known anyone who fought so relentlessly for so long to improve the building industry to make it a financially safter place for subbies, not just in Queensland but Australia wide.
He didn't do it for money, he did it because he had walked in our shoes, he was a subbie himself.
He knew the pain, he knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of contemptible and illegal Pheonix behaviour by a building company and their bank, when in 2013 Walton Constructions went down owing Qld subbies 30 million.
He knew a four pillar bank had their greedy fingerprints all over it and he knew that Governments did nothing to stop these criminal enterprises. In fact with their inaction and desperation to get re-elected, they turned a blind eye but Les ripped the blindfold off.
They thought they could get away with it but they didn't factor Les Williams into the equation.
He fought long and hard to right that wrong and succeeded in the end by winning a settlement from a big 4 bank (one of the Pillars of society, what a joke they are) who facilitated illegal behaviour to get their money owed by Walton but Les did so much more than that.
Les was THE GIANT in the Subcontractors side of the construction industry. It would take me all day to list his achievements in his pursuit of a fair go for subcontractors.
He was responsible for getting security of payment legislation promises out of the Labor Government and driving it home over a number of years. Les drove The Building Industry Fairness legislation passed by the Anastasia Palaszczuk government which was the culmination of four years hard work by Les Williams of the Subcontractors Alliance. He shamed them into it. This legislation included project bank accounts—now officially known as project trusts and retention trusts—are a core part of the security of payment framework.
Les would have made a worthy Queensland or Australian of the year. At one stage I was going to start the nomination process but he was more interested in fixing a badly broken system. He didn't seek acolades, he wanted results.
I used to laugh at some of the people they named as Queenslander of the year, often polictical appointees who never did a days work or got their hands dirty and never held anything in their hands heavier than a pen. In some cases their choices demonstrate just how empty these awards are including the Australian of the year. Hah, the old saying, the pen is mightier than the sword...well Les wielded both with equal effectiveness.
What Les did for Queensland subbies will never be matched, let alone surpassed.
You couldn't faze Les, you couldn't blow him off course, he had a one track mind but he was also a good listener. The tone of his voice rarely changed, he had an amazing bullshit meter, I never saw him angry other than the built in, controlled anger residing in him because of the injustice perpetrated on him and his fellow Walton victims. It was not just Walton victims, it was all the subbies who had worked their guts out and through no fault of their own, had lost their businesses, livilihood, families and in some cases, their lives.
That was what motivated Les Williams to do something for them and to educate them to do something for themselves.
Conversations with Les were always measured and deliberate, no raised voices, just reasoned responses, thats how he got things done. He knew what he wanted and he knew how to get it, he knew what he was talking about through painful and personal experience.
Many thousands of subbes have been burnt and some of them for more money than what Les lost but it was the injustice of it all and his iron will to right the wrongs of the industry that made him tick.
In the industry, I have never respected any man as much as I respected Les for his dedication, determination, uncompromising and unrelenting pursuit of justice for Qld subcontractors.
Les it was an honour to know you mate, you will be sorely missed.
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