The NSW Government Construction Leadership Group (which is led by Infrastructure NSW), has just released a 10-point action plan, which other governments should look towards to drive reform across a number of areas within the construction sector.
The plan recognises that the NSW government can only achieve its infrastructure in partnership with the private sector, which depends on a healthy on-going competition between ‘a capable field of construction firms, sub-contractors and the industry supply chain, not just now, but for years to come’.
These steps were designed to improve the capability and capacity of the NSW construction sector by: focusing on reducing industry costs and ‘down-time’ by making Government led procurement more efficient, encouraging the NSW government to increase in the ‘supply side’ of the sector, reinforce the importance of diversity within construction, further concentrate on the skills and capabilities of the division and lastly, encourage further collaboration between the public and private sectors with aims of fostering innovation.
The document includes note-worthy companies and initiatives (such as John Holland and The Northern Road Employment and Training Hub) as case-studies, which have had a positive affected the state’s construction industry, and whose suppliers have delivered in partnership with the NSW Government and its agencies. Infrastructure and transport specialist, David Donnelly, forecasted that ‘all states would end up with ‘roughly’ the same template’.
NSW’s new 10-point action plan was ‘hard to fault but “governments needed to ensure they did not start taking back too much risk from contractors,” Donnelly stated.
“The government still needs to think through the risks and what the market can bear.”
The Construction Leadership Group (CLG) and its member agencies are now set to implement a plan which will turn the commitments into action. The plan is on track to roll out next year.
Here are the 10 Steps outlined in the NSW Government’s Action Plan:
- Procure and manage projects in a more collaborative way
- Adopt partnership-based approaches to risk allocation
- Standardise contracts and procurement methods
- Develop and promote a transparent pipeline of projects
- Reduce the cost of bidding (provide clarity and consistency)
- Establish a consistent Government policy on bid cost contributions
- Monitor and reward high performance
- Improve the security and timeliness of contract payments
- Improve skills and training
- Increase industry diversity
The full document can be found here.