Boom wasted on bureaucracy, says Greg Paramor Folkestone chief Greg Paramor says Australia was reluctant to take its medicine following the global downturn, unlike the US, which dealt with its problems early. Picture: James Croucher Source: TheAustralian ONE of the most experienced deal-doers in property, Greg Paramor, has attacked the Labor government for "squandering" the country's mining boom wealth on government grants and overstaffed departments. The former Mirvac Group boss, who now runs property fund manager Folkestone and chairs real estate agency LJ Hooker, also says badly behaving unions have led to bloated cost bases. Mr Paramor said he supported Grocon chief Daniel Grollo for taking a stand against the Construction Forestry Mining and Engineering Union, which blockaded the company's Myer Emporium construction site last year. Daniel is the only guy in Australia, in my opinion, who has had the guts to stand up to them, everyone else has ducked and weaved and all power to him. Daniel will probably do things in other parts of the world where you don't have to put up with this nonsense. Mr Paramor is a 35-year veteran of the real estate industry. He ran Mirvac - one of the country's largest property trusts - for four years before retiring just after the peak of the market in 2008. In an interview with The Australian this week, Mr Paramor said the country had been reluctant to take its medicine following the global financial crisis, unlike the US, which dealt with its economic problems early on. The mining boom offered Australia some resilience to the GFC, but the proceeds from the strength in resources, he says, "quite frankly has been absolutely squandered and it is a disgrace." He referred to "bloated government departments" and "thousands and thousands of people with not a job to do." "You go down to Canberra, you've got a massive education department, a massive health department," he said. The department of Climate Change had thousands of people in it, and they didn't have anything to do. Mr Paramor said he agreed with earlier comments made by the chief executive of Fletcher Building, Mark Adamson, that Australia needed "a good dose of Margaret Thatcher," referring to the Conservative British prime minister who broke the power of the unions, deregulated industry and privatised assets. He blamed the unions for higher costs in business. I'm not anti-union, the simple fact is, that when you have unions that behave badly, then we get the type of bloated cost bases. Speaking more broadly on the economy, Mr Paramor said he believed there were questions over quantitative easing in the US, which he described as something of an experiment. They don't know whether inflation is going to kick in at some point or not. In the meantime, central banks are very focused on maintaining low interest rates for all sorts of reasons. Lower interest rates meant investors would likely look to the property sector once again for higher returns, he said, adding that Folkestone was on the hunt for acquisitions in the social infrastructure space, where the group operated, with assets such as childcare centres on its radar. House prices would likely keep up with inflation, with runaway residential price growth unlikely, Mr Paramor said. Mr Paramor said he supported Tony Abbott's paid parental leave scheme, which allows for six months' leave on full pay for incomes up to $150,000. But he said he believed the government needed to take a wider approach, given the high costs and shortages of childcare. I would have liked a broader brush look at the whole thing.