Christmas Tender Campaign

GIVE THE GIFT OF TIME

Pause procurement activity over the festive season to support a mentally healthy and sustainable industry

No tender deadlines over the holidays please.

For the last 3 years Consult Australia has written to government agencies across the country asking them not to release tenders with deadlines that require people to work over the end of year holidays. This year we’ve asked some friends to join us in this campaign.

Consult Australia, the Australian Constructors Association, Engineers Australia, Roads Australia and the Australasian Railway Association have partnered to advocate for a hold on procurement activity over the Christmas / New Year period for 2021. The campaign is underpinned by our collective support for a mentally healthy and sustainable industry, with the recognition that those we collectively represent are eager to take a well-deserved and uninterrupted rest over the end-ofyear holiday period.

To that end, we have collectively written to 98 clients (predominately government agencies) across Australia. So far, we have received 29 responses. Of those 29 responses, only one is ambivalent in its response, North East Link Project in Victoria noted receipt of our letter without confirming any support.

Breaking the responses down by jurisdiction, we see that NSW, Vic and WA all have five responses each, while SA has four responses, Qld has three responses, the ACT and NT have two responses, TAS has one response.

Some notable positive responses include that of Infrastructure NSW, who not only agreed to close live procurement on Friday 17 December 2021 and reopen new procurement processes on or after Wednesday 5 January 2022, but also stated,

“The NSW Government Construction Leadership Group (CLG), which represents all NSW Government infrastructure delivery agencies, has discussed this matter and commends the initiative, noting the importance of rest to enhance the wellbeing of our industry’s people over the end-of-year holiday period.”

WaterNSW thanked us for the initiative and agreed,

“…that the end of year holiday period is an important time for families and friends to come together and for people to recharge.”

Transport and Main Roads Queensland stated that,

“…our construction industry can be assured that we understand mental health support is critical to keeping the industry attractive and a mentally healthy place for everyone to work within.”

SA Water recognised,

“…the significant benefits of providing everyone across all industries the opportunity of a well-deserved rest over the end-of-year holiday period.”

We thank all the client groups that have responded positively to us. We will continue to drive this campaign and hope that further positive responses will be received within the coming weeks.

If you are aware of tenders being released with deadlines over this time and would like us to write to the client in question, please let us know. •