CEO update – March 2021

If ever there was a time where a sustainable construction industry was needed, this is it.

Governments are relying on the construction industry to lead the economy out of a COVID induced recession and infrastructure needs to be upgraded to deal with increasingly frequent natural disasters such as the recent weather event across the south east coast of Australia.

As we emerge from these crises it becomes even more important that we transform how we deliver projects and embed best practice. Projects are being delivered right now and it is critical we speed up reform and seize the opportunity for a more sustainable construction industry.

Through our participation in the Construction Industry Leadership Forum, a joint collaboration with the NSW and Victorian Governments, we are actively pursuing opportunities to reform government procurement processes and to increase the capability and capacity of the workforce.

Recognising also the need for leadership at the national level, the ACA is advocating for the Federal Government to take a more active role in defining and incentivising the use of best practice procurement and delivery processes. The Construction Playbook, recently published by the British Government, accompanied by a direction to use it or explain why not, is a good example of how this could be done. In a positive step forward, this month an Australian version of the NEC4 suite of contracts was released. Again, ACA has been advocating for clients to move away from using adversarial bespoke contracts or heavily amended versions of standard forms such as GC21 and instead adopt more collaborative forms such as those contained in the NEC4 suite. More information on the NEC4 suite can be found in our blog.

Blog

Our second blog, and the first contributed by a guest author, was published this month to coincide with the release of the Australian version of the NEC4 suite of contracts. In the  blog Kevin Pascoe explains what has changed and why NEC4 is so collaborative.

Having been involved in drafting the Y clauses for Australia, Kevin’s knowledge provides for an interesting and informed read.

Read the blog.

Improving gender diversity

Earlier this month we celebrated International Women’s Day. This year’s theme of #ChooseToChallenge was strikingly relevant for construction because the industry is still an extremely male-dominated environment. With women making up just 12 per cent of the construction workforce, this statistic alone can be a constraint in attracting women into the sector.

The ACA and our members are committed to improving diversity in the construction industry. We strongly believe that improved diversity, particularly gender diversity, will have a profound and positive impact on the culture of our industry, our interaction with key stakeholders and the success of our businesses and projects.

In late 2020, the ACA made 10 commitments where our members can drive positive change. Improving diversity is one of these commitments. We commit to creating a more diverse workforce by identifying and removing the current barriers to diversity and to proactively improving the attractiveness of the industry to our future employees.

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2021, we developed a short video highlighting our commitment to and progress in achieving a more sustainable construction industry. We acknowledge there is still a long way to go but we are committed to change. View the video.

Australian Construction Achievement Award

Registrations for the Australian Construction Achievement Award (ACAA) event will open in April.

Now in its 24th year, this prestigious award is the most significant event of the year for the construction industry. The ACAA brings together the best construction projects, delivered by the nation’s very best construction companies. The event will showcase the projects selected as finalists in 2020 and 2021 and highlight the innovation and project skills of each organisation.

This year’s black-tie event will be held in Melbourne on Thursday 26 August at the Grand Hyatt. Special thanks to our industry partners Caterpillar, Cbus, Holcim and Oracle for supporting the event.

For more information visit the ACAA website.

 

Events

The ACA is proud to participate in the following upcoming industry forums:

Critical Infrastructure Summit – 13 April 

• CEO panel discussion: The last six months of the infrastructure industry

Future of Construction Summit – 12 May

• CEO panel discussion: How new technologies and innovative approaches are transforming the planning, design, build, safety and cost management on modern construction sites.

Thanks for your support and don’t forget to keep in touch between monthly updates by following our LinkedIn page.

Regards,

Jon Davies
Chief Executive Officer