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CICA President’s Report
DIFFERENT CHALLENGES FOR 2022
The new year brings uncertainty around new strains of COVID, but there are additional challenges, with crane manufacturers expressing difficulty in attaining some essential parts to re-build machines. There is added pressure on margins, particularly for machines quoted and ordered many months or, in some cases, a year or more ago.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL AND WELCOME
to the first issue of Cranes and Lifting magazine for 2022 and what an issue it is. The showcase edition is the perfect way to start the year where we get to ‘show and tell’ our hardworking fleet. Small and big – our cranes play an integral role in getting the job done on most of the construction, infrastructure, and mining projects across Australia. This issue of the magazine is distributed widely and used as a reference for many businesses requiring cranes.
I am looking forward to this year. 2021 was just as challenging as 2020, with lockdowns, vaccine mandates, a tight labour market, and other state-specific issues creating stress and requiring grit and agility to tackle the problems. That was tiring, so I hope you’ve managed to take some time off over Christmas to recharge and spend time enjoying the company of family and friends.
For 2022, time will tell whether new virus strains will cause a repeat of lockdowns and restrictions. I’m sure you have all noticed now how much more cautious all precincts are to maintaining unrestricted travel, so I feel we need to expect the coming year to have a varied approach as new challenges emerge.
Probably more notable for our businesses now is the impact on machinery supply and the cost to procure parts. When speaking with manufacturers, they express difficulty in attaining some essential parts to build full machines. Added to this, once built, the exponential increase in shipping costs have created unforeseen pressure on margins, particularly for machines quoted and ordered many months, or perhaps a year or more ago.
LET’S GET TOGETHER
This year will provide greater networking opportunities with informative branch meetings and the Industry Days in Victoria, NSW and WA still to happen.
You can read about the South Australian and Queensland Industry Days in this issue. They were well run and highly beneficial for those who attended, and for the industry more broadly. The SA and QLD branches, together with Sue and her team from Wise Connections, worked hard and can be very proud of what they achieved.
I also want to recognise the work that Anthony and Connie Grosser, and the WA team, put into the CICA WA Family Day in late 2021. This event recognises the role of our families and other support people in the lives of our members. From all accounts, it was well attended and enjoyed by all.
Planning for the 2022 CICA Conference is underway. We know that, all things being equal, it will be held in Adelaide a little later this year in November, in order not conflict with other events like bauma.
Be sure to stay connected through the year at your state CICA branch meetings. This is a great way to keep informed with local issues. Your input and participation is always greatly appreciated.
2022 – A YEAR OF REBUILDING
CICA held its AGM in November, which enabled the board to announce all directors up for nomination had been returned for a further two-year term. The president and vice president were also re-elected for a further term, enabling CICA to enter 2022 with an unchanged board structure and allowing continuity for Brandon and his team for the coming year.
With lockdowns hopefully a thing of the past, our industry plays an important part in revitalising each state’s economy through the delivery of major projects. To achieve this, CICA continues its focus on a number of key areas: • Capacity-building programs such as The CrewSafe verification of competency (VOC), which verifies operators are competently skilled, along with video evidence that can be viewed at any time to confirm such competence. Watch out for CrewSafe in 2022 – this platform is growing
CICA president Tom Smith.
and there will be more rapid uptake in New Zealand this year. Also,
StartSafe, which moves pre-starts away from paper and onto an online platform; a fantastic concept that will also grow in 2022. • Road access – CICA has a long history of working with state and local road managers across the country on issues relating to road access and is therefore uniquely placed to analyse the consistency of road access for cranes across Australia.
Crane owners in QLD are facing an extremely frustrating situation with the road access approach adopted by the Department of Transport and
Main Roads and we are hoping that the evidence and data that CICA has spent months collecting will demonstrate just how untenable this situation is and lead to urgent reform. • Building co-operation within construction and relationships with enabling stakeholders. • Focusing on supporting our members through initiatives like
LifeWorks. CICA members now have access to this confidential Employee
Assistance Program to support their own and their employees’ wellbeing.
Given the way we have responded to the challenges over the last couple of COVID-dominated years, I am cautiously optimistic that this year will be a positive year for CICA members and the crane industry. On reflection, it is really quite amazing what has happened throughout the last two years, and with that experience in mind, can any one of us really have any idea what the year ahead will throw at us?
Although we have needed to pivot to deliver for our customers, it has been through these experiences that we have grown and are now better prepared for the opportunities and challenges 2022 will bring.
Tom Smith
CICA president managing director – McKay United 0439 130 567
CICA BOARD
Tom Smith – President Ben Pieyre – Vice President Danny Adair – Director Danny Black – Director Andrew Esquilant – Director Marcus Ferrari – Director David Solomon – Director Bart Sutherland – Director
CICA OFFICE
Brandon Hitch
Chief Executive Officer 03 8320 0444 04 2822 8048 ceo@cica.com.au
Paul Arztenhofer
Membership Engagement/Business Development Specialist 04 9093 9274 paul@cica.com.au
Alice Edwards
Patrick Cran
CraneSafe and CrewSafe Technical Advisor 048 800 4274 pat@cranesafe.com.au
Damien Hense
CICA Road Policy Advisor 03 8320 0460 04 8800 7575 damien@cica.com.au
Jed Kenwright
Julie Turner
CICA Executive Assistant / Office Manager/Vic Secretariat Direct: 03 8320 0411 Email: julie@cica.com.au
Ashleigh Gould
CraneSafe and CrewSafe Administration Officer NSW/ACT QLD & NT Branch Sectretariat Direct: 03 8320 0466 04 0371 7626 Email: ashleigh@cranesafe.com.au
Michelle Verkerk
Unit 10, 18–22 Lexia Place, Mulgrave Vic 3170 Phone: 03 9501 0078 Fax: 03 9501 0083 Email: admin@cica.com.au Website: www.cica.com.au
