Support a healthier, more productive industry

A more commercially and financially sustainable industry is more productive. It is also more likely to invest in developing its workforce, modernise plant and equipment and invest in research and innovation. Ensuring the health of the infrastructure sector is therefore vital to meeting the infrastructure investment task that will be necessary to ensure Australia's social and economic wellbeing.

The 2016 Plan and 2019 Audit highlighted that the Australian infrastructure sector needs to improve its performance in the areas of trust, certainty and transparency. This will involve industry and government, as client and supplier, working in partnership, but also the sector as a whole working more transparently with the community. Currently, fewer than two in five Australians trust government, with infrastructure delivery a major interface between the community and government.126

" A more commercially and financially sustainable industry is more productive. It is also more likely to invest in developing its workforce, modernise plant and equipment and invest in research and innovation. "

Community trust as manifest through infrastructure delivery will be supported by healthy collaborative relationships between government and industry. It is necessary for government to embrace and collaborate with the wider industry, which is made up of groups such as constructors, designers, suppliers, operators and maintenance contractors.127

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have seen pressure on the profitability of organisations in the supply chain. With profitability and confidence in the future increasingly marginal for groups further from the prime contractors. It is imperative that the challenges faced by their industry are ultimately shared with governments, which have a lead role to play in addressing them as infrastructure purchasers, clients, owners and operators.

For example, governments should Join with industry in making stronger public commitments to achieving a healthier and more productive industry. A publicly released 'agreement' between industry and governments, integrated with a detailed plan and commitment from both parties to address longstanding structural challenges, would be a foundation for further action.

Key structural matters to consider would be pipeline certainty, long-term contracting, risk reduction, collaborative models, workplace culture and refreshed definitions and assessments of value for money. The United Kingdom, New Zealand and Scottish governments have taken this approach, leading to positive changes in sector culture.128

There should also be further efforts to prioritise industry productivity that complement positive steps made by stakeholders to date. These include Infrastructure NSW's 10 Point Commitment and Action Plan and the Australian Constructors Association's Commitment to our clients and the construction industry.129