Infrastructure WA

Greater infrastructure pipeline transparency, improving culture and wellbeing, and establishing commercial principles which emphasise fairer risk allocation and collaboration head the priority list of potential solutions that could unlock capacity within WA’s constrained construction sector.

The workshop held in early December and hosted by Infrastructure WA was attended by more than 50 representatives from 40 organisations, including industry bodies, unions and state government agencies and trading enterprises.

Collective minds from across the state and various sectors came together following an initial series of targeted working group sessions to review, discuss and endorse possible reforms to tackle WA’s current and very pressing capacity challenges to improve the long-term sustainability of the state’s construction industry.

Fifteen potential reforms were presented, before participants were asked to vote on the proposed reforms they would like to see prioritised by the WA Government.

The voting process pinpointed 3 key priority areas:

• A more consistent and transparent public sector infrastructure pipeline to allow more informed, data-led decision making and project de-risking;
• Access to a greater pool of resources (people, materials, and funding) through improving industry culture and wellbeing, and incentivising investment in new materials and delivery methods; and
• A more efficient and sustainable commercial environment through enhanced collaboration, ensuring fairer risk allocation, and a focus on achieving outcomes to increase productivity and innovation.

Infrastructure WA CEO Phil Helberg said the positive, robust and collaborative discussion at the workshop was testament to the commitment of all who attended and their desire to develop practical solutions to tackle current market capacity issues.

“It was pleasing to see so many stakeholders, with different perspectives and priorities, come together with a common drive and purpose to find solutions to address demand for construction labour and materials, which is impacting our infrastructure agenda here in WA,” Mr Helberg said.

“As the state government body responsible for the state’s overall infrastructure program, Infrastructure WA has been proud to lead this discussion and contribute our evidence-informed position on this issue, which is impacting many people and organisations.

“Our challenge is to now take the priorities identified through the workshops and look at changes government can make to deliver outcomes that can benefit all sectors, across all regions.”

IWA will now finalise this work and present its findings to the WA Government early in 2023 for consideration.