CIVIL CONTRACTORS FEDERATION UPDATE:

The Key Priority Areas for the Next 12 Months

NICK ZARDO PRESIDENT OF THE CIVIL CONTRACTORS FEDERATION (CCF) ACT AND MBA CIVIL CONTRACTORS SECTOR REPRESENTATIVE

The Civil Contractors Federation (CCF) National Board met in Canberra in late February to map out CCF’s key activities and priorities for the next 12 months.

The meeting reinforced CCF National’s six policy pillars and the ongoing advocacy efforts of the national office in executing the policy agenda with the federal government, industry, the media and the community.

The six policy pillars are:

> Infrastructure Investment

> Industry Sustainability

> Industrial Relations

> Environmental Sustainability

> Workforce

> Procurement

As a part of the CCF National Board meeting, a joint breakfast meeting between the CCF National and the CCF ACT Boards was organised. The meeting highlighted that many of the challenges being experienced by contractors in the ACT are also being felt right across the nation, including industrial relations issues, skill shortages and procurement reform.

CCF has used its 2023/2024 pre-budget submission to call for a sustained growth in infrastructure investment, and for Government to bring to market more small to mid-size contracts to better utilise additional capacity among tier 2 and tier 3 contractors and encourage ongoing procurement reform to maximise the economic and social benefits of governments’ infrastructure spend.

The 2023-2024 Federal Budget will be handed down on Tuesday 9 May 2023.

Recently, CCF ACT has been very busy connecting with Government and Authority representative’s actively advocating on several issues on behalf of the local Civil Construction Industry.

At its first Executive meeting the CCF ACT Board hosted Stan Robb from Icon Water to discuss delays with Icon Water approvals.

CCF ACT has reinvigorated the Safety and Tender reform committees with Major Projects Canberra (MPC). Both meeting in February for the first time in years.

At the Members meeting, we hosted Jacqueline Agius, WHS Commissioner of WorkSafe ACT who generously provided her time in presenting and talking about the recently formed Civil Construction arm of WorkSafe ACT, allowing members to bring up issues directly with the Commissioner. It was a positive, open, frank and informative discussion. An outcome of the meeting was the Commissioner taking the issue of Notice reporting in Tenders and their interpretation up with MPC.

Advocacy, then continued with the first MPC roundtable meeting for the year, discussions centered around the pipeline of work and the current lack of opportunities for most of our members. It was encouraging to have MPC raise the use of WorkSafe notices in tender reviews, obviously the Commissioner had followed through on her commitment. CCF raised the issue of what appears to be a non-collaborative culture being prominent in administering contracts, this view has been taken up by MPC and is now being discussed.

The 2023 SPARK Women in Civil program is underway, with two additional contractors taking advantage of this great initiative for the first time this year. The companies involved are Huon Contractors, Wodens, Guideline ACT, Complex Co, Cord Civil, Canberra Contractors, BMD Group and Chincivil.

The next members meeting is 17th May 2023; attend and catch up on what your association is doing and help influence the advocacy that industry needs.

Finally, the ACT’s Civil Construction Industry’s night of nights, the 2023 CCF ACT Earth Awards are on the 2nd June. Book a table, this is our opportunity to catch up and celebrate the achievements of a great local industry. Look forward to seeing you there.