Peter Silcock, Chief Executive, Civil Contractors New Zealand
You may have heard the news that the government has agreed to a ‘procurement reset’ and the establishment of a new infrastructure entity. We welcomed those announcements and will continue to work with Government officials to ensure these initiatives do make a positive difference.
A key part of the value Civil Contractors New Zealand creates for members is our representation of and advocacy for the civil construction industry. We are the voice and contact point for the industry at both a regional and national level. That enables us to raise and resolve industry-wide issues and importantly to partner with other industry groups to ramp up the issues that are important to you.
Recent construction company failures have highlighted the issues facing the whole industry. These failures are caused by poor attribution of risk and a focus on lowest cost in procurement and tenders – issues we have regularly brought up in our meetings with ministers and officials. We have taken the opportunity to further raise awareness through proactive approaches to media and other construction industry organisations, sharing the views of members gathered through discussion and the Construction Industry Survey, conducted with our major associate Teletrac Navman.
Over the past month it has been conference season for the construction industry starting with the Aggregates and Quarry Conference, our own Smarter Together conference, co-hosted with the Association of Consulting Engineers, followed by Infrastructure New Zealand’s Building Nations Symposium and the Registered Master Builders Constructive Conference.
CCNZ has been represented at all these conferences, but more importantly we have worked closely with other industry organisations to build real pressure around the issue of poor construction procurement practices and the need for change. As an example, CCNZ was invited by both Infrastructure NZ and Registered Master Builders to include comments in their media releases around procurement.
The industry bodies joined together to reinforce our concerns and joined our call for government to lead the changes required to support a healthy and vibrant construction industry. We ensured your views, as civil contractors, were part of a united construction industry wide front working together to build a better New Zealand. We have met with a promising response, and we will keep working to ensure the voices of our members are heard.
