Property Council of Australia Industry Lunch

The Specialist Contractors Association recently sponsored the Property Council of Australia Industry Lunch titled the “Cost of Construction” held on Friday the 31st of March 2023 at the Hilton, Adelaide. This event was a great opportunity for SCA to be recognised as an integral part of the SA building and construction industry and particularly by property sector stakeholders.

The event was an excellent platform for industry experts to comment at length on some of the major issues we currently face in construction, including rising costs, a low skills base, labour shortages, and decreased supply chain reliability. It is pleasing to note the significant contribution to the discussions by Panel Member SCA President Andrew O’Connor.

We note that the supply chain issues experienced during and post Covid including material price and exchange rate fluctuations has caused significant issues in establishing correct pricing of projects.

Whilst some of these cost increases have eased, there is increased awareness of the need to improve supply chains, invest more in trade skills training and to provide an improved environment to attract more people to our industry particularly in relation to female participation.

To address these issues a number of mitigation strategies were discussed, including:

• Increased government and private investment in training organisations;
• Working to change the poor generational mindsets on trade and design careers, respect and value the need for a strong skills base;
• Changing the workplace and environment to aid in increasing the number of women in construction;
• Utilising technology (i.e. BIM-MEP AUS) and bespoke prefabrication to save time, manage risk and improve safety;
• Anticipating supply chain issues and increasing local stocks and manufacturing to better manage;
• Putting risk management where it is best managed; and
• Investing in modern technologies, including robotics, 3D scanning and cloud co-ordination modelling.

It was also noted that technology is improving at a rapid rate and with it the cloud sharing of information, co-ordination, and links to fabrication are all having a positive impact on time and the work environment.

One area identified of significant importance was the need to increase our skills base particularly given the rapid change in technology affecting all SCA members.

We look forward to further collaboration with the Property Council in such events in the future.

Department of Infrastructure & Transport (DIT) Contract Changes

We have been instrumental in changes to the Department of Infrastructure & Transport (DIT) General Building Contractor’s (GBC contracts) and its conditions of tendering including the inclusion of rise and fall provisions, bulk purchasing arrangements and change to the tender validity period to 60 days.

Through the forum of Specialist Contractors SA we have been able to work with DIT to progress these issues to enable much improved contractual arrangements for subcontractors.

Business Luncheon

In May 2022 Specialist Contractors Association held their Inaugural Business Luncheon at the National Wine Centre. It was a huge success, with more than 150 in attendance including politicians, members of the associations, and key industry representatives. The event was held at the National Wine Centre and included an opening speech from Andrew O’Connor, Chair of Specialist Contractors, a fantastic informative presentation from Bronwyn Weir on the much needed reforms to the construction industry, and a great panel session to conclude the afternoon.

The panel, which included Andrew, Bronwyn, Dr. Jeremy Coggins from the University of South Australia and Michael Hutton from Lynch Meyer Lawyers discussed the much-needed improvements to the Security of Payment legislation, Unfair Contract terms, project trust accounts and the impost of unrealistic and unsustainable insurance requirements.

A huge thank you to our sponsors Toyota, Portable Long Service Leave, NECA SA/NT, AMCA, Master Plumbers and NFIA for their support of our event.

Levelling the Playing Field

In November 2019 Specialist Contractors Association held their Inaugural event, “Levelling the Playing Field”. More than 50 people attended, including politicians, board members of the association and the industry trade associations, and key industry representatives. The event was held in a private function area at Sparkke at the Whitmore and included presentations from:

• Andrew O’Connor, Chair of Specialist Contractors;
• Dr Jeremy Coggins, Senior Lecturer in Construction Contract Administration at UniSA; and
• The Honourable Vickie Chapman MP, Deputy Premier, Attorney-General.

Discussions on the night focused on unfair contract terms in construction contracts and some fantastic information was shared.