Grubsheet has received correspondence from Michael J Fairfax – the co-owner of Fiji’s biggest construction company, Pacific Building Solutions – castigating me for being excessively negative when, according to him, there is a great deal of positive news about the economy arising from new construction projects that are currently in the pipeline.
He doesn’t list them and the obvious question arises why the Coalition government isn’t promoting them or even the construction industry itself. But here’s the message that Michael Fairfax has sent to me as a comment earlier today, followed by my response.
Dear Graham,
l feel troubled when l read some of your bitter and regurgitated opinions about the state of the nation. As you know, l won’t comment on politics but it would be nice once in a while if you got out of the other side of your bed and reported on some positive spins that will improve the economy instead of sensationalising stories for more “followers” and “Likes”.
In my 30 plus years in the Fiji construction industry l have never seen so many genuine major projects in the pipeline, this includes major quality hotel brands and foreign investors like we have never seen. From what l know we are talking about values of projects equivalent to the annual GDP and more.
This is massive for future grow, stability of the economy and the people of Fiji
These investors must have measured the risk and feel confident in the future of those investments and their returns. The construction and tourism industries look bright for the future but we need to make it appealing for our skilled workers to stay home in a potential growth period and train staff to provide quality service.
Stability is what is required, just saying..!!
And Grubsheet’s response:
Dear Michael,
With respect, the lived experience of the average Fijian is not the same as yours – the multi-millionaire owner of Fiji’s biggest construction company, Pacific Building Solutions, with luxury homes in Suva and the Gold Coast and with a business partner who is married to a government minister (Rob Semaan, husband of Lynda Tabuya).
A great many ordinary people are struggling with unprecedented cost of living pressures and in the case of Fiji’s minorities, the added burden of living under a racist government that is giving preference to iTaukei at every level, including appointments to the civil service and offices of state.
They have also launched an unprecedented assault on the rule of law with their illegal appointments of John Rabuku and Alipate Qetaki, sending the community a clear message that there is one rule for them and one rule for the rest.
I try scrupulously to be accurate and fair, in your own case contacting you directly when there were allegations that your own company was given the contract to rebuild the GCC complex because your partner is Lynda Tabuya’s husband. When you provided me with a detailed explanation of the tender process, I accepted that explanation and didn’t make an issue of it.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter which side of bed I get out of, the outlook for many ordinary people is bleak. So I can move my bed to the other side of the room and I will still get out and step into the same quagmire. Yes, it is OK for some in the new Fiji. But for others and especially those who have been dubbed “vulagi” – whose right to belong is being fundamentally questioned – many are deciding to vote with their feet.
May I suggest that at least part of your own motive for writing is your concern as owner of Fiji’s biggest construction company that your skilled workers are increasingly being tempted by jobs overseas. The Permanent Secretary for Finance revealed publicly that 50,000 Fijians had left the country in the past two years alone. One of the most senior people in government says that figure is more like 80,000. And it stands to reason that a lot of those are the kind of people you need to be able to fulfil the contracts that you say are producing a construction boom.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with you being concerned about this but let’s not make this an exercise in shooting the messenger. As another multi-millionaire business person recently told me: “We will always make money in Fiji regardless of who runs the country”. But the inability to find qualified staff because of a mass exodus from the country is a direct threat to that proposition and, frankly, it is about time the business community understands that.
Rather than shoot the messenger, it would be far better for your own purposes to persuade the Coalition government to alter its racist policies because they are a direct threat to the national interest and the ability of people like you to prosper.
You don’t need to hire a PR company. Just tell the bloke who sits opposite you in the office to tell his missus (assuming they are still together and she still has influence at the top ). Because it’s not my job to spin a positive message for a government that is demonstrably failing to govern properly and is patently undermining the rule of law and the principle of “one nation”, with equal opportunity for all.
Now that I have resumed my previous role as a journalist, my job is to stand up for the little guy and hold governments to account – a role the mainstream media in Fiji has largely abandoned. So, sorry, but if the construction industry thinks there is a great story to tell about the economy that isn’t being told by Grubsheet, you can always get someone else to tell it.
Rest assured, I do hope you all prosper. Because the livelihoods of so many Fijians depend on it. So my best advice wearing my old PR hat is for you to collectively go the Prime Minster and tell him that the exodus of skilled workers poses a direct threat to the stability and prosperity not only of your own industry but Fiji’s economic growth. And that it is critical for the Coalition to rebuild confidence in Fiji on the part of its own people by ending its overt racial and religious bias and begin fulfilling its original promise to govern for all.
Incidentally, I am no longer in pursuit of “followers” and “likes”. The wife of your business partner made sure of that by getting me kicked off Facebook.
With every best wish.
UPDATE MONDAY AM: As if right on cue, the government’s PR agency – the Fiji Times – weighs in with a list of projects on its front page. With Fred Wesley doing precisely the promotional job Michael Fairfax wants Grubsheet to do and going beyond the call of duty to describe them not just as “interesting” – his usual description of most things – but “exciting”.
Wow! Fred’s excited! It must be good.
Happily republished here but my response stands. It is for the government to create the climate in which Fijians of all ethnicities want to stay or the mass exodus of skilled workers will continue and even accelerate.
No wonder they got the contract for building the GCC complex. As they say here, Kilavata club. Thank you Graham for exposing these ‘sweet talking, self serving maniacs’. The cat is out of the bag. Such hypocrites that criticised the previous government for the same thing they’re doing now.
Back in the day , prior to 2006, Fiji Times would print my Letters to the Editor. Dictators, governments and technologies have come and gone.
Once in a blue moon I will buy a Times so I can play Sudoku. Yes, I am addicted.
Back in the day I referred to rural Fiji as the TMO islands. (Telegraphic Money Order )
It’s “Remittances Fiji” now and mPaisa rules.
The more government fails, the more it succeeds . Remittances are the saviour for a failed State.
Why the Coalition won’t say a peep about all the construction going on is these projects must have been at least 3 years in the making ( miracle) before ground is broken, a ribbon cut, a prayer said, waka presented. Just imagine, all your ROI projections made on the premise that Fiji is heading for a magic million population and now you are left with a declining pop. Will we regress to 700,000 in the next 3 years ??? Oh but no matter, remittances will hit FJD 2 Billion.
Excellent response Graham. One would wonder whether the pressure to keep Lynda on as a Minister is being pushed outside of the political arena – so many stand to lose with her demotion and a well deserved one it would be! I’ve never known any woman politician in FIJI who has acted with such total disregard and disrespect for democratic norms. Very sad situation in Fiji today .
Just stopped reading at Pacific Building Solution… but I scrolled down and read your response. Well done – so on point!
Too true grubsheet.
In the beginning I had the same sentiments as I was expecting changes.
As time passed by I saw the same shit perpetrated by the hope of change.
Hope you continue to expose the rot. The sad thing is that Fijians are doing this to their own people. Integrity has gone out the windows.
Poor Michael Fairfax. Graham just ripped him a new one as they say in Australia.
I would like to invite Mr Fairfax back on your page to list the development that he is talking about. Many veterans of the construction industry are not seeing these newish pipeline projects anywhere. The usual trajectory is there but nothing out of extraordinary. Unless of course one is married to LT maybe.
What is in design and thought is just that. Not even at execution level yet.
In the North, investors have put many things on hold. They have very little trust in the government and huge skilled labour shortage.
I would also like Mr Fairfax to disclose to taxpayers how many tenders he has been awarded that directly benefits his company that Tabuya’s husband also has shares in and is awarded by the government. Or the ones he feeds off somewhere down the food chain.
We will wait.
Looks like this guy just planted Habibi and his LT Habibya in another misery.
Graham, you hit all the high points and I would like to add a few more comments, observations, and questions. I do agree that construction projects are often considered to be the ultimate indicator of investor confidence, so you would need to look at a few other elements:
1. When were these projects initiated? Are these, as you alluded to, mostly FFP generated projects?
a. Because, anywhere in the world, the timeframe on construction development is long, and its far, far longer in the Pacific Islands.
b. We can all see how slow a project takes to go from ground-breaking to occupation and utilisation. Can anybody recall seeing a major construction project in Fiji that went from ground-breaking to occupation in much less than a year?
c. More importantly, it takes far, far longer for a project to go from a seed of a thought to the actual physical ground-breaking. First you must have your thoughts, share those that with trusted people in your circle, then produce your projections, acquire the land (searches, legal, negotiations, more), secure the financing, insure the project, gain all the permits, select the construction crew(s), staff the project, etc., etc. So, it is more likely than not, that these major projects that Mr Fairfax alluded to have been in the works for 2 to 3 years at a minimum. Therefore, all that investor confidence was with FFP and nothing for the Coalition to take credit for. Claiming credit for this for the Coalition wreaks of a diversion tactic to drive attention away from all the failures of this government.
2. Who is actually funding the projects? Most successful contractors use OPM (Other People’s Money) so are these projects self-financed or more likely, with loans coming from local banks, local investment funds and the most exploited, tried and true safety net of them all, the most dangerous OPM for FIji, the nation’s retirement money pool, FNPF. None of these organisations can bow out of the project or they will be sued. They are stuck to complete them even though they already know that they will surely regret it. This could and will trigger a major problem with our critical and core financial institutions when the economy suffers, and then these projects do not turn profits. This sets us up for a double whammy of economic malaise, the proverbial metaphor of pouring fuel on a fire!
3. You hit the nail on the head with the mass exodus of workers? Further ask yourself, who is leaving? The top of the heap will stay, as they will exploit. They always do and it has never been even easier with these most easily influenceable politicians this country has ever seen. Unfortunately, it’s the quality middle and upper management that are leaving first. They already qualify to leave, they are immediately employable and can earn far more, and they will not be persecuted. This is the nation’s next generation of trained and qualified leaders and that is an epic tragedy further exacerbated because they will take with them young children who should have been groomed to follow. This is setting the country up for 30+ years of massive decline. (Crying emoji)
So Mr. Fairfax, are you really and truly that blind, or are you and your business partner simply trying to blind us? Cry, the Beloved Country.
Every year there’s a hundred million dollars worth of projects in the pipeline and then at the end of the year there will be a quiet little article in the middle of the paper saying that only about 10 million actually happened in real life
I’m sure the numbers are much higher in the projections but my point is that it’s always a case of over-promising and under delivering
Thought I will check who is Mr Fairfax.
https://pacificbuildingsolutions.com/our-people/
He claims to be the specialist in outer island resort builds, movie set builds, and whatever next. And the only one with these specialist experiences in the South Pacific.
Over exaggerated there, mate. Master and Certified Builders are already laughing at that claim. Who do you think you are fooling? How many Fijians on this team?
There are other credible builders who do more than you in Fiji and more so in the South Pacific.
Michael, this idea of chucking a tanty at Graham while deeply conflicted about your own association with LT’s husband amidst Graham’s recent disclosures about LT shows some peculiar judgment in your part.
If this juvenile idea was run past your PR team prior to hitting “Send” on your email, then I suggest sacking the whole lot first thing Monday morning.
And if you don’t have one, perhaps it’s time to find a good professional. Consider it a stitch in time for the future mate.
A privileged and wealthy elite speaking with vested interest in mind. All he’s interested in is his business interest. Take no notice of this self serving sycophant, Graham. Most people in Fiji are behind you. Without you, the rogues you have exposed would have enjoyed complete impunity. We the public are behind you. We, who are hungry for the truth are behind you. The truth is less important for Michael. For him, his business interests and profits are more important.
I’d be interested to know what hourly rate Mr Fairfax’s company pays his Fijian workers.
Bro, I am a certified builder with about 30 years of building experience throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
I am sure you are successful but to get a build started, EIAs completed, design and consent in place, material and labour, etc is no way a year’s job if the project you claim is big. That must have started more than a year ago by Fiji’s and investor standard in all due diligence that is now required.
Whole of the Pacific is having a shortage on material for quality builds and good workforce. Even the best of companies in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji are struggling. Again, good on you if your projections are working. We with the same experience must be doing something wrong.
If you have been able to fast track stuff then I will question who are your tradies and lead agencies in Fiji for major projects. I haven’t found this level of steady progress yet in Fiji.
Let’s just be real here.
Isn’t PBS owned by Lynda Tabuya’s husband?
Yes, Minister LT is the third slow turtle in the business with Habibi and Fairfax.
Even the men benefitting from this triangle or all affairs are openly slaying themselves to death for this disgraceful Minister.
Shows how deep this whole business must run and run wild they do, throwing all off their axis brutally.
James, Lynda Tabuya’s husband – Rob Semaan – co-owns PBS with Michael Fairfax. The company register shows they have an equal number of shares in PBS.
What a load of hogwash from Fairfax. To back up his so called claims:
Could he name those “genuine major projects in the pipeline” and major quality hotel brands and foreign investors like we have never seen” ???
The actual fact of the matter is that skilled laborers are leaving Fiji in the tens of thousands. Fairfax should know this VERY well. Tons of his own workers from his skilled laborers to those in his management team have resigned for abroad. Known fact; Plus as Graham so rightfully put it- Fairfax perceives all this from his golden mansion in Oz and not understanding the actual situation on the ground. Apart from the huge laborer shortage, Investors and families are selling up. Now that we have a pot smoking, promiscuous, drunken clown as the very mentally unstable Minister for Women, Fiji is on another level and has really gone to the dogs.
Bill Gavoka,
There is no such thing as a 6 and 7 star rating in the tourism industry.
It all stops at 5.
Get properly educated in your own sector and get with the times.
The general PR and media incompetence of this government is a shame to this country.
Get the most basic facts right.
Our 5 star resorts are not even that anymore. The standard of Fiji’s tourism has fallen and I am afraid to say that workforce is our biggest concern with a growing Asia destinations in demand. We simply cannot keep up with niche tourism anymore. The lack of investment in the sector overall is not all glamourous.
Graham, vinaka vakalevu for bringing some light to Fiji’s fragile state of affairs. I am beginning to wind down in the sector and I am sure as hell worried about the tourism industry and the concerns about drugs in Fiji now. This has become a concern for us in the tourism industry and we simply don’t have the backing of a functioning health sector and the Police to keep anyone safe. Worrying times.
Excellent response Grubsheet !
Vinaka.
If Mr Fairfax wants to retain his workers, perhaps he could pay his workers a higher wage. He did said he has had a very prosperous year so why not pay it forward to the people that are making it happen for him?
I don’t assume to know what they get but I do know you can’t get away with this inhumane hourly wage in Australia. Even though the govt has set the minimum wage, it’s still not right when people are doing back breaking work for so little… He’s measuring his success in new projects but doesn’t mention anything about how his workers are doing. Only that they are leaving.
Mr Fairfax, we all want to know what you pay your workers, what benefits if any, do they have and if they make enough to take care not their families. Are you aware of how they are doing? We also want to know if anyone helped you win that contract. And what other perks you got from Tabuya and co.
When a Government Minister’s phone reveals open and brazen messages about using drugs on AUSAID funded Parliamentary trips, with impunity, then what hope is there for the nation ?????
Even the Police are now on public record as being involved in narco-trafficking activities.
That is the example, and the standard, that the nation are now expected to walk by. Spot on!
Source FB J Savou
Isa Graham, you have just given Mike most likely his worst Monday start. Thanks and we hope he will respond. And surely you will give him space on GS for his response and further analyses of it.
PBS, as Mike admits, faces local labour shortages but of course they have the resources to hire from abroad and certainly the political clout to fast track work permit applications through the elusive Hon Madame Minister LT.
And Vinaka Graham, for your ongoing prodding. Hon Inia Seruiratu’s voice has finally been heard (as below but silent still on the LT/AR affair). Let’s hope that RN, WN and others you had mentioned will follow suit.
https://www.fbcnews.com.fj/news/seruiratu-raises-alarm-over-crime-rates/
“The well fed will never understand the hungry”
I am taking that with such a great year of unprecedented forecast Mr Fairfax will fairly compensate his workers above living wage.
What does he pay as an hourly rate to those on his sites anyway?
Not hard to find out.
How much was the GCC contract, Graham? Any idea. And who all bidded for that contract is on everyone’s mind. How did that procurement process take place.
Knowing Lynda it is hard to trust anything she has her finger in. Heard through a friend that she was in New Zealand running around mad breaking deals for the housing project in Fiji with a builder who was under quite a scrutiny by the building license board. Just to give you an idea of the type she hangs out with and dances away with too.
Or, based on recent displays of promiscuity, if the finger is reversed for that matter!