The Territory branch starts the 2010 year with the prospect of a pronounced wet season stalling a start or recommencement of many projects. The Centre has had a good drenching with favourable effects on the pastoral industry, but the usual disruption to lifeline outback roads.
Even the Ghan rail link has been severed 200km north of Alice Springs and was out of service for more than a week.
In the Top End, good monsoonal activity has resulted in very high rainfall throughout the January period, with attendant flooding of most of the northern road network.
So, whilst our civil construction contractors remain somewhat stymied in commencing work on their existing contracts, there are many attending to emergency flood repairs for the Government, whilst pondering the full implications of the federal Fair Work Australia legislation and the full detail of applicable new awards.
Some critical works on the Victoria Highway, linking the Territory to Western Australia, including the Victoria River and allied bridges and road embankments within the vast flood plain, have been completed prior to the onset of the Wet. The travelling public will reap the benefits of greater security and safety in traversing this highway – annual disruptions to traffic should reduce from the extremes of weeks to days at the most.
Congratulations to Steelcon Constructions and Allan King and Sons for a job well done, and we would hope a project entrant in this year’s CCF Earth Awards.
What’s before us this year appears to the ups in the remnants of the federal government’s stimulus packages, and there was not a lot there for the civil construction industry in the NT. And completion of the much maligned SIHIP program; once again not overly blessed with civil content.
On the downside, probably not all that different from other states, is the expectation that the 2010/11 Territory Budget, will be constrained in order to service debt arising from stimulus geared investments, throughout the period of the global financial crisis. The fixed four year term of the present government provides one more budget period before elections are due, so politically the coming budget is the traditional time, regardless of the government of the day, to offer ‘responsible fiscal restraint,’ in front of a remarkable recovery in economic conditions in the budget leading in to elections.
So, a pretty lean year may be before us, and small to medium size contractors will need to be cautious and accommodate new models of collaboration with the larger companies who, for example, are positioned to tender federally funded projects requiring levels of accreditation largely not accessible to others.
Communication with members during the Xmas break has not lapsed, as the introduction of the Territory White Card has not been without its confusions. Similarly, the Fair Work Australia commencement date of 1 January 2010, has demanded supply of the best information available to members via eNewsletters and special bulletins.
We have also, for the first time, been in a position to distribute branch field diaries for 2010 and, with great assistance of the Queensland Branch, an NT corporate membership guide, specifically geared to showcase Territory CCF services, events and core strategies of the branch.
This year will see the branch continuing to expand materials of this nature, such that members-wherever they may be, will have ready access to the array of services provided, or well articulated pathways linking them to free and fee-for-service expert and professional service providers.
In this sense, it is encouraging to see the spread of our associate members’ financial, industrial relations, legal, contract advisory, insurance, and environmental and safety services, available to members.
On the training front, we have seen no response from the Productivity Placements Program round of funding for 2010, in relation to numerous submissions from RTOs for certificate IV level courses in civil construction supervision and operations.
To say that we are appalled at this outcome, would be a gross understatement. But it again reflects a deeper malaise in the training and employment policies of governments and their agencies in a blinkered approach to recognising the needs of our industry.
For the Territory, this is somewhat of a tipping point. Our contractors continue to deliver billions of dollars of Territory and Commonwealth Government infrastructure programs, the industry is the cornerstone for most mining and remote community economic development projects, and its contributions are largely taken for granted.
Successful states and territories over the immediate years before us, will be those that strategically examine their skills needs for implementing their infrastructure policies, and invest in securing those skills by targeted workforce development programs.
Politically, and a circumstance sadly reflected within our training and employment agencies, opportunities are foregone through a complete lack of commitment to understanding the looming crisis in critical industry skills, and reliance upon particularly crude assessment tools. Whilst bureaucratic ease is blessedly achieved, nothing particularly productive results for our industry, or indeed in relation to the underlying aspirations of government and the voting public.
