Consulting Matters March 2022

AUTUMN 2022

CONSULT AUSTRALIA QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FOR CONSULTANTS IN DESIGN, ADVISORY, AND ENGINEERING

CHALLENGE DEFINING 26

HOW BIM CAN ADDRESS THE GLOBAL CHALLENGE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS 28 HOW TO BUILD RESILIENCE

18

AURECON DESCRIBES OUR CHALLENGE DEFINING MOMENT AS THE ‘GREAT ADAPTATION’ 24 PROFESSOR DANNY SAMSON

ORGANISATIONAL AND PERSONAL RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF CHALLENGE

22 IMPROVING STRUCTURAL SAFETY SHARING LESSONS LEARNED

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2018

CONTENTS

Image: Aurecon

Page 18

Page 28

Î THE GREAT ADAPTATION:

HOW UNCERTAINTY CAN HELP US SUCCEED

INDUSTRY UPDATES 4

Appointments

4

Industry News

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT CONSULT AUSTRALIA

FEATURES

10 Advocacy Highlights 14 SME Highlights 15 Spotlight on government forums

BUSINESS ESSENTIALS

18

The great adaptation: How uncertainty can help us succeed

20

Sustainable development: Achieving the balance between design and materials

22

Improving structural safety by sharing lessons learned

24

Lifting our personal and organisational resilience

26

How BIM can address the global challenge of sustainable development goals

28

How to build resilience

30

What will the post-pandemic knowledge management development pillars look like?

36 Constructing the worlds largest mining solar and battery storage project

32

Australia tops Asia-Pacific corporate inclusivity ranking

INDUSTRY COMMENT

8 From the President 9 From the CEO

ÎHOW TO BUILD RESILIENCE

16 Roundtable round-up

33 Investment markets in a pandemic world

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 34 Hand in hand: Addressing increased and evolving humanitarian need

PROJECT CASE STUDY

37 More than three quarters of Australians want single use plastics banned - IPSOS Survey

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the magazine contains an image of a deceased person.

Consulting Matters 3

Industry updates

Industry updates IA has also published their Regional Strengths and Infrastructure Gaps report, providing government, industry, businesses and the community with an evidence base to support regional growth, off the back of the COVID-19 pandemic and recent extreme events.

APPOINTMENTS

Lindsey Brown has been appointed to the position of Australian Market Leader – Water at GHD. This appointment will see Lindsey play a leading role in assisting clients in the water sector to identify and leverage opportunities to leave sustainable legacies for people and communities.

Lindsey has more than 15 years’ experience, across three continents, in environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility and public policy development in the water industry.

She has led the development of multiple strategic policy and planning documents for Melbourne, Sydney and Perth that have underpinned lasting economic and cultural legacies for people and communities.

Senior appointment Soumendra Paul, Victorian Transport Leader Cardno, now Stantec.

Charged with leading the transport business in Victoria, Soumendra is an accomplished senior engineering executive and is set to bolster Cardno, now Stantec’s delivery in state and local government infrastructure projects. Specialising in civil and structural engineering, Soumendra’s appointment will drive Cardno, now Stantec’s recent transport infrastructure wins and strong project pipeline.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Chris has worked on a wide range of water, sanitation and hydropower projects in Australia, USA, China, Laos and Vietnam, including the Victorian Desalination Plant.

He also has a strong passion for giving back to industry and the community. He is an active member of the Australian Water Association and continues to be the national lead for GHD’s partnership with leading humanitarian agency RedR Australia. Chris is also a strong advocate and role model for Inclusion and Diversity.

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These region-specific analyses provide a lens to highlight and understand opportunities and prioritise investment. The Regional Strengths report also looks for commonalities to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing to enable proactive planning led by local communities.

The report is a starting point for discussion between all stakeholders to inform further planning, policy and investment solutions.

Infrastructure Australia is actively encouraging feedback from the community, with submissions open until 29 April 2022.

Tonkin acquires Farr Engineers to strengthen presence in South East Queensland

Infrastructure Australia Deliverability Roadmap and Regional Strengths Reports

Chris French is the new Regional General Manager – Victoria at GHD.

In developing this report, IA partnered with 48 Regional Development Australia committees to conduct extensive consultation on community views. This was supported by engagement with key regional stakeholders, including businesses, peak bodies and industry groups, to help create a picture of each area’s diverse assets, incumbent growth industries and infrastructure requirements.

Infrastructure Australia (IA) has published a roadmap to a more productive and resilient future focused on delivering better outcomes for the community and for business through a more productive, innovative and sustainable infrastructure sector.

Consult Australia features in the report and is quoted regarding the need for more collaborative standard form contracts, “Government clients negotiate one on one with private sector suppliers for every contract, often using bespoke contracts or modified ‘standard’ contracts that often repeat the same problematic terms”. We have also been called out for our leadership in championing the reform agenda.

Infrastructure Australia has developed this report to support policy makers, infrastructure owners, delivery agencies and the broader industry to improve productivity and to provide clear priorities for innovation, and the models to embrace it. The period for comment on this report is six weeks. Comments are requested by 29 April 2022

Gerry Doyle, CEO of Tonkin has announced that as part of its growth strategy in South East Queensland the company has signed an agreement to acquire Farr Engineers.

Based in Brisbane, Farr Engineers has provided civil and structural engineering services for projects in northern NSW and across Queensland for more than 20 years.

The acquisition will double the size of Tonkin’s workforce in South East Queensland and will strengthen the structural and civil expertise and offerings that can be provided to existing and future clients of both companies.

The acquisition represents yet another significant step in the growth of Tonkin and will build on the success and growth that has been experienced since Tonkin commenced operating in the structural engineering space in the eastern states through the acquisition of TLB engineers in Sydney in 2018.

Industry updates

Editor/Marketing Manager Daniela Bozinovska

President Rowenna Walker

Tonkin acquires Farr Engineers (continued)

Chief Executive Officer

Left to right • • • • •

Nicola Grayson

Tom Oliver: Leader | Queensland Structural, Tonkin Olivia Oliver: Chief Operating Officer | Tonkin Andrew Farr: Director | Farr Engineers Jonas Hniopek: Senior Structural Drafter, Farr Engineers Truong Nguyen: Senior Engineer, Farr Engineers

Finance Manager Penny Clark

Engagement Manager Linda Gaunt

Head of Policy & Government Relations Kristy Eulenstein

SSI launch Reconciliation Action Plan with Stan Grant Launch of ‘Innovate' RAP a key milestone in reconciliation journey Settlement Services International (SSI) launched the organisation’s 'Innovate' Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), to celebrate SSI’s reconciliation journey with key members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, staff and supporters at the Ashfield Town Hall.

The SSI Group's 'Innovate' RAP, recently endorsed by Reconciliation Australia, is the organisation’s commitment to creating opportunities with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, under three key pillars: Relationships, Respect and Opportunities.

A traditional Smoking Ceremony welcomed guests to the event where ABC International Affairs Analyst and Wiradjuri and Kamilaori man Stan Grant provided the keynote address, speaking about reconciliation and its meaning to Aboriginal people.

To access and download the full Reconciliation Action Plan, please visit https://www.ssi.org.au/images/SSI_ Reconciliation_Action_Plan-compressed.pdf

VIC Manager Mark Rogers

Senior Policy Advisor Teone Tobin

NSW Manager Alison Kirk

SA, Tas & the Territories & A/g WA Jan Irvine

QLD Manager Kristine Banks

Systems Administrator & Analyst Breanna Gorrell

Corporate Designer Fredi Cueva

Accounts Guillaume Marchand-Henderson

PA/Office Administrator Photo credit: Joseph Mayers Photography

Karen Pooley

Editorial submissions

daniela@consultaustralia.com.au Advertising enquiries

Stan Grant, back centre, with key members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, SSI staff and supporters at the launch of SSI’s Reconciliation Action Plan.

info@consultaustralia.com.au Consulting Matters is produced by Consult Australia. Phone: (02) 8252 6700.

Website: www.consultaustralia.com.au

Consulting Matters 5

Industry updates

WGA acquires process engineering consultancy Inception Group Acquisition expands WGA’s offering in resources, positioning it as one of Australia’s leading multi-service engineering consultancies Left to right: Peter James, James Davidson, Jon Weir, Jess Page, Conrad Wilkins

Multi-disciplinary engineering and project management company WGA (Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec) has announced the acquisition of resources specialist consultancy Inception Group. The process and data analytics engineering firm, founded in Adelaide, has operated globally for over a decade delivering consulting solutions primarily in mining and metals. This union will allow both companies to broaden its capabilities and service offering to existing and new clients.

Peter McBean, joint Managing Director at WGA comments, “This merger begins an exciting new chapter in the WGA story, allowing us to expand our client offering, increase market share and maximise efficiencies. With the integration of the Inception team, WGA will have a total workforce of 450 and access to new connections and experience to better support our strategic growth across Australia and New Zealand.”

Consult Australia pays respects to the memory of Peter Caune (Ashburner Francis) It is with sadness that Consult Australia remember and pay tribute to Peter Caune, who passed away on 14th of January. Peter was Managing Director for over a decade at Ashburner Francis, having started his engineering career as a graduate with the company over 30 years ago. Peter was an active member of Consult Australia, participating in SME open forums and sharing his eagerness and passion for engineering.

We thank Peter for his leadership and contribution and we pass on our condolences to Peter’s family and colleagues.

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What's happening at Consult Australia

From the President

“

Often challenges that we come across are out of our control and unplanned, but it’s our response to those challenges, which we can control, which will determine the outcome.

This edition of Consulting Matters focuses on the theme of Challenge Defining. A challenge can be described when something is new and difficult, which requires effort and determination. I think we can all agree there have been so many challenges thrown at the world, individuals, families, and business, certainly over the last two years, that it would be easy for us all to rattle off a list.

Often challenges that we come across are out of our control and unplanned, but it’s our response to those challenges, which we can control, which will determine the outcome.

In some cases, this can be defining for us as individuals, governments, and business.

When I reflect from a personal perspective, I am the person I am, not only because of the DNA that is part of me but also from the experiences that have shaped me and will continue to. Whether that’s travelling and working overseas, or the separation of parents. Interestingly I took on my current role at Aurecon on 1st March 2020 just a couple of weeks before the Pandemic hit Australia. So, I have been certainly defined in my role as a leader who has steered my business through the challenge of a pandemic.

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Just look at Covid 19 and the very different responses that each country, government and their leaders made to the pandemic, and then what that has meant for the citizens of those jurisdictions, their health and their economy.

I have been delighted to have seen the rapid adoption of flexible working and working from home, that without the pandemic would have taken business a long time to be fully convinced it could work. So, some challenges force change as a necessity. Imagine if we as an industry and society had the courage to adopt changes ahead of those challenges so we are better prepared to respond?

One thing the last two years has taught us is, we are, and will continue to be, in a Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) environment. I was reflecting with someone last week that this new paradigm might mean that those that have led when things are stable and safe may not be the right people or have the right skills to lead in this new world. Indeed, our ability to adapt and evolve to the environment at a pace may indeed define our success as a business or as an individual. We have seen how industries and companies have ascended to prominence and also fallen off the radar over the last few decades as change has happened around them.

”

If we consider the challenges our industry is facing with skills shortages, the ability to attract and retain talent as well as the ability to attain PI insurance in a once in a lifetime infrastructure boom, we as an industry will certainly be defined by how we respond to those challenges. Throwing our hands in the air and saying ‘it’s all too hard’ won’t be our finest response, but as a collective we have the ability to respond to that challenge together stronger.

“Being Challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional” – Roger Crawford n

Rowenna Walker President

What's happening at Consult Australia

From the CEO

“

Yes, the challenges are significant but the way we respond and the opportunities we can create are substantial.

”

The consulting industry is most certainly in a challenge defining time. We are at the centre of economic recovery delivering record level spending in infrastructure. In NSW and QLD the climate is throwing everything it’s got at us in terms of incredible rainfall, a sharp and harsh contrast to the bushfires in 2019-20. Across Australia the impacts of climate volatility are being felt. The consulting industry plays a critical role in how we respond to climate change through adaption and resilience.

Yes, the challenges are significant but the way we respond and the opportunities we can create are substantial. Consult Australia’s 2022 three-year strategic plan seeks to make the most of this opportunity by further growing our profile and influence to champion the value that you, our members, provide to our economy and communities, and double down on the entrenched issues that stand in the way of progress. You can find our strategy on our website here.

The upcoming Federal election provides a great platform for us. I sit writing this on return from Parliament House in Canberra, my first in-person visit since the pandemic began. It was good to reconnect and after an extended one on one briefing with a political staffer on the state of the professional insurance market, the causes, and urgent need for reform, I am encouraged.

We’ll be exploring our industry’s challenges and opportunities at OneConsult 2022 (30/31 March), asking at our conference, ‘Is collaboration the new competition?’. In other words, will those that prove themselves to be great collaborators be in the strongest position? I’d love to hear your views at the conference so if you’re not registered, do so now here and take a look at our fantastic line up of speakers here.

In this edition of Consulting Matters, Bill Cox, CEO of Aurecon describes our challenge defining moment as the ‘Great Adaptation’.

Professor Danny Samson discusses organisational and personal resilience in the face of challenge. Josh Stone of Ignite Coaching, also explores resilience by sharing the steps to building resilience. CROSS-AU showcases how we can collaborate to share learnings from building projects, essential to continuous improvement, and Skye Li and Bill Thomson from GHD look at the role of BIM in addressing sustainability challenges.

Dr Daksh Baweja of BG&E views a challenge defining moment through the lens of sustainability and finding a balance between design and materials.

Another challenge defining issue that is impacting businesses across Australia is the shortage of skills. The Consult Australia team is not immune, and we do have some unfilled vacancies on the team. That said I am delighted to welcome and introduce, Mark Rogers our new Manager in Victoria, and Breanna Gorrell our Systems Administrator and Analyst. Please also join me in warmly congratulating Teone Tobin, who has been promoted from the role of Policy Anaylst to Senior Policy Advisor for Consult Australia.

You’ll get to meet the wonderful and hardworking Consult Australia team in person when you join us at OneConsult 2022! n

Nicola Grayson CEO

Consulting Matters 9

What's happening at Consult Australia

Advocacy Highlights Head of Policy and Government Relations

Kristy Eulenstein I like to think that policy is the ultimate ‘challenge defining’ opportunity, where you get to re-think old paradigms, be solutionsfocussed, and find a way to improve the future. Advocacy is putting a voice to that process. Already 2022 has demonstrated how Consult Australia’s voice is needed to ensure government policy doesn’t slip into entrenching past problems.

To kick-off the year we released our Federal Election 2022 Priorities and our Pre-Budget Submission and have had interest from government Ministers as well as Shadow Ministers on our proposed solutions, including Minister Dutton’s Office.

Knowing the capacity constraints are biting businesses of all sizes, we have been busy meeting with the Department of Home Affairs and the industry outreach officers that specialise in the infrastructure sector and in the Global Talent Program. We will be sharing contact details via Latest News on our website if you are looking at employeesponsored visas. We also continue our engagement with the National Skills Commission on priority occupations.

We know that the collapse of Probuild has impacted some of our members – please contact me if it has. In response we have been increasing our pressure on government, including through the media, calling for reform to how construction operates in Australia (whether it be through government procurement or private investment).

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We had a very positive meeting with the Office of the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman – who has been championing insurance issues and understands how the market pressures lead to such collapses. We also maintain our strong relationships with the insurance industry to help our advocacy.

In addition to all of that, we’ve managed to make several written submissions on: National Mental Health Commission’s National Workplace Initiative – Theory of Change and Evaluation, Commonwealth Treasury – ACL Consumer Guarantees, National Workplace Skills Priority List and Productivity Commission’s Productivity Inquiry.

This is just a quick overview of our activity at the Commonwealth level, remember to watch our Policy Pulse videos, and find out more about what we are doing at the local level from the team below. See also later in this issue our Small Business Highlights, Roundtable Round-Up and Spotlight on Government Forums. n

What's happening at Consult Australia

NSW

Alison Kirk

1 2 3

Our engagement with Transport for NSW continues, with the establishment of a regular quarterly forum and an invitation for Consult Australia to participate in a working group on sustainable procurement. We have also met with the new Director of Commercial Procurement and Strategy to talk collaborative contracting. Please contact Alison if you have feedback on TfNSW’s Project Streamline.

The Department of Customer Service has invited us to participate in a Home Building Act review roundtable as well as a working group on modular building risk to create guidance material for industry.

We continue our focus on NSW Treasury, especially on the Supplier Input Panel (SIP) project, with members concerned about the suggestion of capped rates (which were previously introduced for management consultants). Any feedback you have please contact Alison.

VIC

Mark Rogers

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Consult Australia has a new Manager for Victoria, Mark Rogers. Please feel free to contact Mark with your contract conundrums, insurance issues etc.

We are keen to hear from any members impacted by the collapse of Probuild. We know this could have a devastating impact on your business where you are owed money and the future of projects being unknown. Contact Mark for support.

In response to member feedback, we have initiated discussions with the Department of Treasury and Finance on tendering and contracts.

SA, Tas & the Territories & A/g WA

Jan Irvine SA

1

Following our years of advocacy, the Department of Treasury and Finance has agreed to amend the Treasurer’s Instruction 18 – so that construction projects over $165K will no longer be exempt from procurement reforms. The exemption meant businesses had to factor in disproportionate levels of project risk, purchase additional insurance and waste time and cost on protracted contract negotiations, for certain government projects, but not others.

Consulting Matters 11

What's happening at Consult Australia

NT

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The NT government has introduced mandatory vaccination conditions into all new contracts, with severe penalties if suppliers do not comply. The conditions extend beyond supplier personnel who attend construction sites, applying to any person who does any sort of work on an NT government project. While our members support the public health outcomes of increased vaccinations in the community, this sort of contractual obligation could have significant impact on business.

Our positive engagement with NT Power and Water Corp continues, with a meeting late February to discuss the pipeline of work and the skills and capacity issues to assist industry, align with Power and Water Corp’s needs.

TAS

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The Department of State Growth raised with Consult Australia a concern about design errors on projects. After discussions between Consult Australia members and the Department it was determined many of these were not in fact design errors, but the lack of clear briefs and scoping. To work through these issues, we are holding monthly meetings to realise better outcomes for all.

Building Tasmania’s Future is a memorandum of understanding between members of the Tasmanian Building and Construction Roundtable to work collaboratively to deliver a sustainable infrastructure pipeline. Once executed, Infrastructure Tasmania will lead the implementation of the MOU and measure progress against the agreed actions.

ACT

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A new government forum has been created bringing together Consult Australia members, Major Projects Canberra and the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Design Directorate. This group will meet quarterly to collaborate, share information such as industry best practice and government priorities as well as discuss challenges being experienced across government and industry.

WA

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We have been engaging with the WA government to be clear on the capacity constraints in the industry and also the availability of consultants across the market to do early design work for projects where construction needs to be delayed.

We are collaborating with other key construction industry groups to support a proposal for an industry sustainability framework.

The WA Committee is keen to encourage new participants, if you would like to get involved, please contact Jan for more information.

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What's happening at Consult Australia

QLD

Kristine Banks

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We held a successful workshop with Gold Coast City Council on improving agreements. Focus areas included insurance, contract conditions and collaboration. Thanks to all members who have provided information on their struggles with these contracts, including members of the QLD Committee and the Liability & Contracts Roundtable who attended the workshop. We will be holding further discussions on contract conditions.

After a positive meeting with the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training on skills shortages, Multicultural Affairs Qld has requested a meeting. In partnership with Engineers Australia, we will continue to explore initiatives on migrant skills and recognition in engineering.

At the first Infrastructure Industry Steering Committee for 2022 (a government forum involving contractors as well as consultants) Consult Australia suggested as a key priority, cultural reform. This would include the role of the Queensland government as client, particularly within procurement, to find some specific actions for change.

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CONSULT AUSTRALIA? To find out more about how your business can benefit from membership contact Consult Australia on (02) 8252 6700 or email membership@consultaustralia.com.au www.consultaustralia.com.au

Consulting Matters 13

What's happening at Consult Australia

SME Highlights

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New Board Member representing small business interests Martin Gamble has been appointed to the Consult Australia Board to represent small businesses.

Martin is the Managing Director of Gamcorp, a business that started very small and has grown to just over 20 people. Martin has been a committed contributor to Consult Australia for many years including through the Victorian Committee, participation at our Small Business Open Forums and most recently on the Programme Committee for the OneConsult event.

Small Business Forums with Commonwealth Ombudsman The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman has invited Consult Australia to a series of Small Business Forums with guests such as the Minister for Small Business, Stuart Robert and the Shadow Minister for Small Business, Richard Marles. With both, we raised professional indemnity insurance issues and the impact on small consultancy businesses. Following these meetings we have received requests to brief their political advisors on the reforms we are seeking.

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Insurance top of mind at first Small Business Open Forum for 2022 In February we held our first Small Business Open Forum for 2022. The availability and affordability of professional indemnity insurance was top of everyone’s minds. The increasing levels of coverage expected by clients was discussed. The inefficiencies and problems with government panels was also raised. Consult Australia team members have used this intel to meet with key government leaders to discuss these issues. If you face similar issues, let your local Manager know.

Remember that the Small Business Open Forum is held every 8 weeks and is an opportunity for our small business members to raise issues directly with Rowenna (Consult Australia’s Board President), Nicola (CEO) and Kristy (Head of Policy and Government Relations) as well as to share and network with other small businesses.

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Using the dispute resolution service provided by the Commonwealth Ombudsman If you find you are struggling to get your client to pay, your client is relying on a set-off clause to withhold funds, or you are confronted with a claim by a client – think about using the free dispute resolution service offered by the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. An important additional benefit of using this service is that the Ombudsman will get a clearer picture of the common issues and claims faced by small businesses which informs their policy advice to government. More information is available here: https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/disputes-assistance/ how-we-help

Be engaged, get value!

The best way to get value from your membership is to engage with Consult Australia, be it through events and education, by responding to calls for input or just contacting your State/Territory Manager to vent about current business frustrations. n Already in 2022, we’ve heard from the following small business members, who have helped direct our advocacy efforts:

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What's happening at Consult Australia

Spotlight on Government Forums Consult Australia participates in almost 30 regular government forums across Australia driving our advocacy for members on issues like procurement, pipeline, and market capacity issues. This includes forums created and run by Consult Australia as well as forums initiated by government agencies. Contact your local Manager for more information.

In WA, we are part of WARRCMIAG and UDAC as well as regularly meeting with the Small Business Development Commissioner and others.

In the NT, we meet with the Department of Infrastructure Planning and Logistics.

In QLD, we meet with Transport and Main Roads, Energy and Public Works as well as local councils.

In NSW, we meet with Transport for NSW as well as the Department of Customer Service.

In SA, we meet with Treasury and Department of Transport and Infrastructure.

In VIC, we meet with Consumer Affairs and are looking to grow more regular engagement with others.

In the ACT, we meet with a broad range of agencies at the Commonwealth level as well as with ACT agencies including Major Projects Canberra etc.

In Tas, we meet with Department of State Growth, Treasury and Infrastructure Tas.

Consulting Matters 15

What's happening at Consult Australia

Roundtable Round-up Consult Australia has four roundtables which underpin our member-led advocacy. These roundtables look at issues from a national perspective. Below are the ‘Top 3 takeaways’ from the first quarter meetings. Watch our Roundtable Round-up video and for more information or to join please contact Kristy.

MENTAL HEALTH ROUNDTABLE

PEOPLE AND HR ROUNDTABLE

• The mental health pressures of industry-wide staff shortages are being seen

• Retention is an ongoing challenge and one of the most pressing issues for member businesses right now

• Participants are realising the realities of the challenging culture their employees work in, as well as realising the great resilience of their people to deal with so many stressors • Participants are eager to see the results of the Consult Australia Workplace Practices Survey

• People and HR professionals are reminded to set their own boundaries and preserve their energy particularly given the stress and strain of the past few years

• Salary expectations are rapidly increasing creating a difficult challenge for businesses to navigate

DEFENCE ROUNDTABLE

LIABILITY AND CONTRACTS ROUNDTABLE

• Consult Australia is keen to secure member feedback on the current suite of Defence contracts

• Participants are eager to assist in discussions on fitness for purpose, to make clear the problems for consultants and their insurance

• Participants are keen to prioritise a contract workshop with Defence

• The ongoing success of the Defence-Industry Co-Lab is always a key focus of this roundtable

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• Victorian government contracts are a priority for engagement in 2022 • Participants are concerned with the NT government contract obligations on vaccination which will require further monitoring and engagement

What's happening at Consult Australia

2022

ECONOMIC FORECAST An economic forecast for consulting business in design, advisory, and engineering.

Consult Australia launches the 2022 Economic Forecast Consult Australia’s 2022 Economic Forecast report is an essential tool for any consulting business in design, advisory, and engineering.

Consult Australia partners with Australian Construction Insights (ACI), who authors the report. ACI is Australia’s leading provider of economic data and research for the construction industry.

Why purchase this report ?

Over 60 pages of industry insights

Purchasing the Economic Forecast will not only help you to identify opportunities, risks and threats to your business and highlight important trends in the industries and markets in which you operate, but it will also provide you with insights that are crucial to the development of sustainable, robust and achievable strategies for consulting firms of any size.

Some facts you will discover in detail:

58,000+ BUSINESSES IN 2020/21

PURCHASE THE 2022 ECONOMIC FORECAST TODAY AND DISCOVER DETAILED INDUSTRY INSIGHTS TO SUPPORT YOUR BUSINESS! BUY NOW

The total number of consulting businesses involved in engineering, architecture, and surveying and mapping, continued the upward trend it has exhibited over much of the last decade, with over 58,000+ businesses in 2020/21 – Find out more today!

$13 BILLION PER QUARTER The value of public sector work done over the last couple of quarters has still been up around 4-year highs, over $13 billion per quarter – Understand public sector demand for construction

3.9% ECONOMIC GROWTH Over the 12 months to September 2021, Australia’s economy expanded by 3.9 per cent – Discover in detail the contribution of construction to economic growth

Consulting Matters 17

Feature | The great adaptation: How uncertainty can help us succeed

THE GREAT ADAPTATION:

HOW UNCERTAINTY CAN HELP US SUCCEED The Great Fire of London in 1666 was a dramatic tragedy: a catastrophic four-day inferno, destroying 80 per cent of the City of London and leaving 80,000 people homeless. Close-built wood and straw buildings, densely populated alleys and dry conditions created a recipe for disaster, which was only brought to an end by Navy-assisted explosions in a last-ditch attempt to create firebreaks.

As terrifying and horrible as this experience likely was for those living through it, destructive events have a way of necessitating new and improved ways of doing things. What 17th-century Londoner would have known that a fire sparked in a baker's shop on Pudding Lane would lead to a historic transformation in the future design and management of their whole city?

The Great Fire of London is but one silver-lining example; human history is freckled with big problems that have led to great improvements. While adaptation in the face of adversity is nothing new, it's still very challenging, especially when the problems being solved are incomparable with anything we've experienced before.

Hindsight helps us understand past challenges but, when we are in the midst of new ones, the pathway forward is often laced with uncertainty.

Industries across the world are adjusting to new ways of working, largely a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, we're hell bent on finding innovative ways to become sustainable faced with what will be the greatest challenge yet: climate change.

Considering how big and unprecedented these challenges are, the adaptation pathways we are embarking on will be no easy journey – uncertainty is rife at every corner. So, how can we find our way through unknowns and towards the right solutions if we don't have any idea what they are?

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Image: Aurecon

What follows The Great Resignation?

One of the most immediate issues at play within our industries is a struggle to retain talent. In a widescale trend dubbed The Great Resignation, more and more people are changing career paths and workforces.

While the pandemic has realigned people's personal priorities, the increase in transitions is also a result of pent-up demand created by pandemic-induced stagnation. Many industries ground to a halt, and uncertainty encouraged a lot of people to stay put. And now that things have begun to open up, people are on the move – both nationally and internationally, and within and outside their fields of work experience.

While it's fantastic to see people feeling excited and empowered about pursuing new goals, there's no denying industries are experiencing this now more than usual and on a scale we haven’t really seen before. There are going to be considerable efforts expended in pursuit of retaining staff, retaining teams and retaining company culture, yet at the same time delivering well for clients.

However, as with the Great Fire of London, we can also find opportunities in these challenging times. With more people changing jobs, there's a good chance of attracting fresh talent from diverse backgrounds that can bring new ideas and create more robust problem solving – some that we may never have thought of or achieved before.

Who knows what kind of creativity and innovation we can uncover and unlock with this new-found diversity of thought?

The great adaptation: How uncertainty can help us succeed | Feature

"Hindsight helps us understand past challenges but, when we are in the midst of new ones, the pathway forward is often laced with uncertainty.”

Moving to net zero All the adaptation we are achieving is excellent practice for the challenges still ahead of us, particularly in terms of climate change.

Moving to net zero emissions is one of the biggest and most important challenges we've faced in terms of the transitions that businesses need to make, and the associated risks. Although, it is also one of the biggest opportunities we've had to make a difference, not just for our clients, but for society more broadly.

Making a difference is largely about supporting communities and clients to adapt to new ways of operating their assets that will make everything more efficient and reduce emissions.

This involves harnessing new skills and techniques, and is also about thinking more broadly around how to extend the life of assets to retrieve as much value as possible from investments.

As we follow through on principles of sustainability and circular economies, we must also think holistically about sustainability, building it into the way we design to ensure longevity and resilience into the future.

Achieving net zero won't be easy, but we are working in an era of technological advancement that's set to develop solutions we have yet to discover.

Turning problems into opportunities One of the biggest hurdles these changes presents is the level of uncertainty at play, as industries work their way through the pandemic. And the pandemic isn't over. This year will yet again have some very significant uncertainties that need to be worked through, on levels that go beyond staff retention.

We are going to have to be courageous and work through more phases of uncertainty as the world tries to recover.

While the future is still unclear, I find confidence in knowing how organisations have handled a great deal of uncertainty so far. We've been experimenting, testing new things, and embedding solutions and strategies that work. We've been making many changes and growing more comfortable with adaptation.

Continuing to work through the pandemic made quick evolution very necessary, and accepting that more changes will likely come is crucial. The old 'set and forget' approach to solutions doesn't serve us well when our challenges evolve.

We need to be realistic about levels of uncertainty by acknowledging what we can and can't control.

As we ask our people to join our journey through uncertainty together, we also need to continue supporting them. Workplace health and safety, including mental health and wellbeing, have been brought to the fore since last year. And continuing this well-being journey with them, assuring them that we have got their backs, will help us foster the resilience and positivity we need to recover and march forward.

We might not have all the answers now, although that's part of the nature of adaptation. As long as we stay flexible and open to change, we can work towards transforming big problems into great improvements, for our industries and the communities they serve.

William Cox, Aurecon Chief Executive Officer

We've all lived through lockdowns to varying extents. Trained in cautiousness over the past two years, we know how damaging restrictions can be. We don't want to do that again; we all want to get ahead now. However, the severity and impact of new COVID-19 variants is yet to be determined.

Consulting Matters 19

Feature | Sustainable development: Achieving the balance between design and materials

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:

ACHIEVING THE BALANCE BETWEEN DESIGN AND MATERIALS BG&E provided Structural Engineering and Materials services for the iconic Quay Quarter Tower in Sydney.

BG&E Director of Materials Dr Daksh Baweja believes the Australian sustainability lobby over emphasises materials for reducing embodied carbon, to the detriment of the greater potential impact of structural design.

Dr Baweja says, “We cannot continue to ignore the engineering in assessing sustainability.”

“While a positive step in the right direction, popular sustainability benchmarks in Australia, such as the Infrastructure Sustainability Council’s (IS Council) IS rating and the Green Building Council’s Green Star rating can be achieved just by reducing materials with high levels of embodied carbon, such as cement.”

However, BG&E research found that embodied emissions of a short column can be reduced by increasing concrete and the associated cement levels. The inclusion of higher strength grade concrete with higher cement content can enable use of less steel reinforcement and a reduction in the volume of materials used, reducing a structure’s overall embodied emissions.

20 Consulting Matters

Advanced carbon lifecycle assessment metrics, such as those by The London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI), apply a more rigorous emphasis on the project lifecycle and the role of the design phase in determining materials used, construction processes, the structure and its performance.

Dr Baweja says, “The sustainability landscape in Australia is where the UK was five years ago.”

BG&E’s London office adopts both efficient design and sustainable materials to reduce embodied carbon by up to 55% for projects, in accordance with LETI’s sustainability metrics.

However, it is promising to see the best practise method for optimal sustainability – the reuse or upcycling of buildings, is making inroads in Australia with the iconic Quay Quarter Tower (QQT) project, which will see Sydney’s 1970’s AMP building redeveloped to deliver a new contemporary neighbourhood with 52 storeys of innovative commercial space, five basement levels, 104 luxury residential apartments, prime retail, green spaces and artisan cafes.

Sustainable development: Achieving the balance between design and materials | Feature

The joint venture by BG&E and ADG Consulting Engineers will be the first national example of a new commercial building built around two-thirds of the retained core of an existing high rise. The reuse of materials resulted in a total carbon saving of over 7,500 tonnes, and an estimated economic saving of $130 million.1 Dr Baweja says, “There is no better way to reduce embodied carbon while significantly reducing construction costs, than reuse or upcycling.”

In recognition of this fact, the Royal Institute of British Engineers has issued an upcycle policy to be used for projects in the UK wherever possible.

The proposed $320 million regeneration of the Remada Renaissance in Manchester’s city centre constitutes another best practise example of upcycling. BG&E advised Mace Group regarding the 27-storey tower designed to house residential apartments alongside the existing Renaissance hotel, complemented by a new green public space along the River Irwell, pop-up food and drink vendors, new footpath and a cycle lane.

BG&E helped to deliver the Bunbury Outer Ring Road (BORR) in Perth in West Australian.

The new tower will be built around the existing core, reducing the need for demolition and generating total embodied carbon savings of around 2,760 – 3,800 tonne CO2e.

With science dictating this is the decade that the future of our planet is determined by the pace of climate change, it is clear that there is an immediate role for the urban built environment industry, which is responsible for 75% of annual global Green House Gas Emissions (GHG).2 Dr Baweja says, “Sustainability is now the thing you have to do in order to fulfill your duties to the industry, the communities we shape and the planet.

“It is essential to look at the bigger picture and cut through popular misconceptions and myths. It’s not about what you put into a structure, but what sustainability benefits you get out of it across the lifecycle.

“Engineers are best placed to provide holistic sustainability advice, with technical expertise regarding the design phase and materials.”

Dr Baweja continues to pursue sustainability innovation in both a professional and academic capacity, as an Industry Fellow at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Technology in Sydney, a widely-published author of technical papers on the durability of fly ash and other concretes, and has held executive roles at CSR, Readymix and Rinker, among others.

BG&E Director of Materials Dr Daksh Baweja 1 Australian Circular Economy Hub: Quay Quarter Tower – The Sydney Office Building Implementing Circular Design on a Mammoth Scale, 2022.

2

UN Environment: 2021 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction, 2021.

Left to right: Reza Hassani, Kerrod Potter, Xiaoyu Gu, Thomas Flood, Leonard Ambrogi, Sean Windred, Rami Jeaitani and Joe Daven.

Consulting Matters 21

Feature | Improving structural safety by sharing lessons learned

IMPROVING STRUCTURAL SAFETY BY SHARING LESSONS LEARNED

CROSS-AUS (Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures Australasia) is the confidential reporting system established in Australasia in 2018 to capture and share lessons learned from structural safety issues which might not otherwise get public recognition. As Eleanor Roosevelt succinctly put it:

Importantly, all CROSS websites are interconnected so that all reports from all regions are freely available to everyone no matter their location.

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself”.

A non-profit company limited by guarantee, CROSS-AUS Ltd, was formed in 2018 to run, manage, and promote CROSS in Australasia.

This company is wholly owned by the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and is managed by a Board of Directors appointed by IStructE. This allows CROSS-AUS to remain completely independent and publish all relevant material to aid professionals in the built environment without commercial concerns. In addition, there is an Expert Panel of volunteers who provide commentary on reports that are submitted. They use their experience to identify the underlying causes of safety issues and the lessons to be learned.

However, all too often, when something goes wrong one’s instinct is to try to conceal it, or when there is a significant failure, legal proceedings will prevent disclosure of the event. As then President of The Institution of Structural Engineers, Faith Wainwright, stated when launching CROSS-AUS during the Australasian Structural Engineering Conference, in Adelaide, in September 2018: “As professional engineers we have a profound duty to ensure the safety of all those who use the structures we design and build.

Sharing feedback on near misses or concerns is not always easy and CROSS is a successful community platform to allow professionals to do this simply, without attributing blame.

Thus, the objective of CROSS is to help the construction profession to learn from its experiences and it is recognised for making improvements in public safety. CROSS-AUS builds on the success of CROSS-UK, the unique UK-based system which has been operating successfully since 2005 and is now part of a growing network of CROSS programmes internationally, including CROSS-US. 22 Consulting Matters

Who we are

How does it work Safety reports can be submitted to CROSS by anyone who works in the industry. The reports are processed as shown in the following diagram. Confidentiality is a critical aspect of the process and neither personal details nor information that could be used to identify a project or product are seen by anyone other than by one of the Designated Persons who de-identifies them to remove details of the reporter and any other identifying features.

Improving structural safety by sharing lessons learned | Feature

How you can use the information CROSS-AUS provides a vehicle whereby everyone can contribute towards improving quality and safety by sharing safety issues and disseminating advice on good practice and we are pleased to welcome Consult Australia as a Supporter of CROSS-AUS. We want you to use the information on our website to make structures safer and ultimately to save lives and reduce injuries. Here are some practical ways that you can use the information: • As part of your continuous learning and development • Improve your knowledge of safety for your area of work • Keep up to date with emerging safety issues • Find out more about best practice • Share it with your team and others

Fig.1 Reporting to CROSS

Build your understanding – with NCC CPD Online courses now available!

Email info@ncccpd.com.au Phone 1300 NCC CPD (1300 622 273)

For further information, visit the CROSS-AUS website and while there be sure to sign-up for CROSS-AUS email updates. And we encourage you to share your experience by submitting a report on any structural safety matter or concern that you have or by providing feedback on any of our published reports. If you have any questions, you can email us at team.aus@cross-safety.org.

Purchase online now or subscribe for more information Trying to stay up to date with the rapidly evolving construction industry? NCC CPD can help you get ahead!

Engineers are vital to ensuring that Australian buildings meet the requirements of the National Construction Code (NCC). The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB), in consultation with industry, government and subject matter experts, has released online NCC CPD courses to help you gain greater confidence to apply and interpret the NCC, identify non-compliance and rectify it.

To purchase a course go to cpd.abcb.gov.au © Commonwealth of Australia and the States and Territories of Australia 2021, published by the Australian Building Codes Board.

Consulting Matters 23

Feature | Lifting our personal and organisations resilience

LIFTING OUR PERSONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL RESILIENCE For each of us personally, and for most of our organisations, the last two ‘pandemic years’ have thrown us a series of curve balls that were unexpected to say the least, taking us out of our comfort zones both at home and at work. The unpredictable events brought challenges that were often huge, and on reflection, we have as a society done remarkably well in adjusting. Like most professional consulting firms, my own university closed its campus during lockdowns, and our international students who fund much of our revenue stream were prevented from coming to Australia, while the university sector was excluded from JobKeeper support to boot. At my university, we were creeping slowly towards bringing online teaching into play to supplement face to face traditions, and Bang, we were forced to accomplish a complete transition of a five-year gradual change in under two weeks. Necessity certainly was the mother of invention!

Interestingly, student reaction was generally positive, indeed our teaching programs were so successfully transformed that many students do not want to transition back to campus.

The pandemic-induced challenges were big, in terms of technical capability and personally for many of us, whilst we were also under the health cloud of not knowing much at all about how the pandemic would develop. In combination with working from home, many of us also had to do home schooling, change our work-life balance habits, and endure multiple lockdowns, while watching the tragic death count rise.

Human resilience came to the fore Organisations are ultimately made up of individuals, working in teams and departments, and the resilience of organisations was founded on the resilience of their individual employees, led and guided by the policies and encouragement of those in senior leadership roles. Some people report that their productivity increased during lockdowns.

24 Consulting Matters

How we connected socially was very challenging when pubs, clubs and restaurants were closed and events cancelled, and in many states, we couldn’t see even our closest friends and relatives for many weeks at a time. While we all moved quickly and effectively to Zoom and Teams for our work meetings, many of us neglected the longer-term impacts on our mental health, and a learning for ‘next time’ is that society needs to ramp up its support services much more effectively for people who did not adjust well to lockdowns and closed down offices and leisure activities, and even no possibility of holidays in the usual sense. The mental health impact is still a challenge facing our communities.

Business challenges were immense, and they continue. Many retail businesses are closed and never coming back which is tragic for our economy, and even our largest professional service businesses had to reconsider their cash flow forecasts and viability in the new ‘pandemic’ conditions. Ultimately, most professional service firms survived, and some even prospered under the different business conditions that the pandemic imposed on us, which is again a testament to both collective and individual human resilience.

Governments, both Federal and State, were required to show strong societal and economic leadership through the pandemic, and on reflection they deserve about a ‘B- minus’ on their capability to plan and execute responses, with many disastrous decisions and consequences, such as in quarantine management, Aged Care facilities, and in acquiring and distributing vaccines and PPE in a timely way.

Lifting our personal and organisations resilience | Feature

Reprioritising our approach to work and life

"Organisations are ultimately made up of individuals, working in teams and departments, and the resilience of organisations was founded on the resilience of their individual employees, led and guided by the policies and encouragement of those in senior leadership roles.”

A key learning for many of us has been to put things into perspective, and ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’. I have recently helped one large and one smaller organisation create vision statements, strategic plans and business improvement initiatives, and noticed that they were very comfortable to look at the big challenges and, refreshingly, not get bogged down in trivia, knowing that the tactical actions will work out if we can get the big picture framework right. In past years, many such groups I have worked with had a natural tendency to spend too much time ‘in the weeds’, but this seems to have changed: what a good thing! Perhaps what we have all experienced in the pandemic years has given us a valuable new perspective on what is really important.

There was much to learn from what transpired during the pandemic, and indeed we saw elements of human nature come to the fore that surprised many of us, such as violent demonstrations in our capital cities by anti-vaxxers and others, greed driven business owners who rorted JobKeeper and refused to pay it back even when named as rorters, and arrogance by some societal and political leaders. Thankfully we also saw widespread acts of human kindness and caring for people who needed extra support and care during lockdowns.

We were confronted by decisions being made differently around the world concerning trade-offs between lives and livelihoods, and thankfully for us in Australia there was great care and compassion for lives in the most, compared with countries such as Brazil, USA and many others. Australia’s death rate per million of population is quite far down the international ranking list, tragically too high at 200 deaths per million of population, yet it is cold comfort to note that some countries were fifteen times worse, when we also can note that New Zealand was fifteen times better! There is much to learn about quarantine management and governance, vaccines and treatment supply chains, and health care policy from the past two years.

Looking forward on a personal level, we have certainly had time, in between Zoom meeting perhaps, to reflect on our lives, personal and careers, relationships and position on important issues going forward such as climate change mitigation. The challenges that we have all faced into over the past two years can be seen as an opportunity to re-prioritise how we live. On reflection, I’m thankful that this pandemic wasn’t 100 times more contagious and deadly, and hope and expect that our preparedness for the next crisis, be it a pandemic, flood, bushfires, or something else, will build on the collective resilience we have developed.

Danny Samson is Professor of Management at the University of Melbourne. He provides strategic advisory services and conducts management development programs with Consult Australia: comments to d.samson@unimelb.edu.au

Consulting Matters 25

Feature | How BIM can address the global challenge of sustainable development goals

HOW BIM CAN ADDRESS THE GLOBAL CHALLENGE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

In 2015, all UN member states adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as part of a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

One of the key technologies that is transforming how we can respond to these goals is Building Information Modelling (BIM).

The global economy and all essential services (water, energy, sanitation) depend on assets and infrastructure developed by engineers, architects, and other construction professionals. Therefore, making the design, construction and operation of infrastructure more efficient can play a major part in meeting the UN SDGs. And that’s where consultants can band together to improve how we serve our communities. By integrating BIM into the asset life cycle, the digital tools we use can contribute to reducing pollution through better construction management. Through the implementation of BIM in the consultancy and design phase, projects can avoid delays, local disruptions, cost inflation, and inefficiencies.

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How BIM puts the UN SDGs within arms’ reach BIM contributes to all 17 SDGs to some extent. Below are three examples that highlight how.

• Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation • Goal 9: Industry, innovation, infrastructure • Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities Caption: BIM’s ability to contribute to each SDG. Source: GHD Digital research

Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation BIM can be applied to optimise water efficiency through data-driven design and operational decision-making. From bid creation to asset management, BIM can greatly improve efficiency.

For example, by unifying location and asset data into one intelligent platform, information usually collected physically on-site can now be found by interrogating the virtual site, rapidly speeding up the site evaluation, optioneering and site investigation processes.

How BIM can address the global challenge of sustainable development goals | Feature

BIM’s ability to contribute to each SDG. Source: GHD Digital research

Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

The future of BIM in sustainable development

Identifying improvements to infrastructure during the design stage is critical to constant, sustainable improvement.

Our built environment influences our lives in many ways, so it has never been more important to plan, design, construct, and operate both conscientiously and sustainably to ensure our communities, livelihoods, and way of life aren't disrupted by climate change. Designing for the needs of the future without compromising the present can well be achieved by prioritising environmental, social, and sustainability goals across all operations.

Implementing BIM in projects improves stakeholder communication through a Common Data Environment (CDE), eliminating information silos and promoting multi-disciplinary collaboration.

A CDE reduces pre-build clashes and makes it more feasible to visualise design issues prior to construction. 3D visualisation means that calculations and models are more accurate and more detailed, resulting in high quality structures that withstand the test of time.

BIM can also reduce costs. This is achieved through choosing more costeffective materials, streamlining the construction workflow, and reducing human errors that lead to project delays and costly repairs.

Across all projects, BIM can realise benefits such as reduced project risk, improved built outcomes, improved asset management, and more efficient and on-time project delivery.

Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities A number of cities are taking the initiative with Smart Cities/precincts to integrate physical and digital systems in the built environment to improve efficiency, sustainability, health and wellbeing. This links closely to the increasing focus on the human experience of places and spaces. Inspired, resilient and connected communities of the future will be based on the integration of g the Internet of Things (IoT), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), cloud computing, and BIM to facilitate city planning, construction and management.

Implementing BIM processes and technology throughout the full asset lifecycle serves as a critical opportunity to support sustainable construction by minimising the harmful impacts of building on our planet.

As consultants, we have a leading role to play in championing sustainability and sustainable approaches in all our work, including embracing new technologies.

In response to these SDGs, we need to bring value to the future of tomorrow by integrating BIM into the asset lifecycle to ameliorate, optimise and drive better outcomes. By co-creating a sustainable future together, we can deliver endless benefits for our environment, our economy, and our community.

Skye Li - Digital Assets & Engineering Intern, GHD Digital Bill Thomson - Digital Assets & Engineering Leader, GHD Digital

With data linked across all building, infrastructure and transport systems, BIM provides real-time information and analysis of urban services and operations to maximise efficiency. It also: • Minimises resource consumption • Reduces environmental impact • Ensures resource availability for future generations and communities.

Consulting Matters 27

Feature | How to build resilience

HOW TO BUILD RESILIENCE With the engineering and construction market as busy as it is right now, as well as there still being levels of uncertainty in our economy, building resilience is such a key skill to master.

Now resilience is absolutely a skill that can be developed and learnt, but it requires a level of self-awareness, self-reflection, a willingness to get a bit uncomfortable and to take consistent action over time in order to build this skill.

You see, resilience is essentially the way at which we view life circumstances, life situations and what is happening to us or around us.

Resilience is also then the action that we choose to take in response to adversity and ‘negative’ things happening to us or around us.

If we get flustered, or overwhelmed, or want to bury our heads in the sand and hide every time something doesn’t go our way, or a negative situation occurs in our days - then we simply aren’t going to be effective leaders and we aren’t going to be able to achieve the levels of success that we are aiming for in our teams, businesses and careers in general.

It is simply won’t happen.

On the other hand, if we can recognise and learn to see adversity as an opportunity to learn and grow i.e., looking at this experience through a different lens, then we can start to build the resilience and skills that will support us in the future as these types of situations and experiences arise (as they inevitably will).

So, lets now walk through the steps required to build resilience within ourselves as a skill set that can be called upon to navigate and ultimately succeed in tough, challenging or uncomfortable times.

The first step is awareness.

"Remember we’re trying to build resilience here when times get tough – not acting the same default way that you have in the past which hasn’t served you.”

Everyone’s default response to a triggering or uncomfortable situation is different. It’s either fight or flight. Your work here is to build a level of selfawareness of what your automatic or default response is and then practice not acting or behaving this way. Remember we’re trying to build resilience here when times get tough – not acting the same default way that you have in the past which hasn’t served you.

The second step is to remind yourself that this is an opportunity to learn and to grow.

That this is an opportunity to dig in and get a bit uncomfortable. Sure the situation that you’re currently faced with is not what you wanted or asked for, but it’s here, it’s happened and you need to deal with it.

Remind yourself of your commitment to yourself and those around you that you’re using situations like these to learn and practice building the skill of resilience within yourself. Take a deep breath, lean into the situation, take charge, open up the communication and navigate it as best as you can in order to get the best outcome and resolution for all involved.

Learning to become aware that you have been triggered by a situation and that you’re wanting to retreat, hide or pull away – or fight / attack / stand up to the situation or person. This is the automatic fight or flight response ingrained within us.

Remember, you are ultimately doing this in order to learn the skill set required to thrive in this environment when adversity raises his head again.

Developing awareness can be hard at first, but it gets easier the more you practice it. If you have been triggered by a situation, it often feels like your body has become quite agitated, hot and heavy.

The more you practice getting in, learning, doing hard things, getting a bit uncomfortable - the more you will learn to build resilience and ultimately learn to thrive in the future when tough situations arise.

You might find yourself automatically wanting to move away or create space from the person or situation causing you to feel uncomfortable.

Procrastination is really common here – doing menial or unimportant tasks because the ‘bigger rock’ tasks that you know you should be doing are making you feel anxious, worried, uncomfortable or agitated.

So, make a commitment to yourself now, to practice building this skill of resilience based on the steps explored above and let me know how you go!

You also might find yourself wanting to stand up, fight, yell, get passive aggressive or have a go at the person or situation that has made you feel uncomfortable.

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The third step is to repeat, repeat, repeat!!

Josh Stone Director, Coach & Trainer Ignite Coaching

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Consulting Matters 29

Feature | What will the post-pandemic knowledge management development pillars look like?

WHAT WILL THE POST-PANDEMIC KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PILLARS LOOK LIKE? In an effort to grasp the knowledge of executives throughout North America in a post-Covid-19 world, leaders from large corporations operating in a wide range of industries were questioned. Many executives agreed that knowledge management has become a focal point of the executive span of control but has not been associated with organisational internal resources enough to make it an integral part of business success. This article fills this gap by providing a comprehensive framework which incorporates all of the contextual factors that simultaneously impact knowledge management development in corporations in the post-pandemic world. For the executive’s corner, exploring these internal resources and how they may impact provide practical implications for top managers to improve outcomes at the organisational level and meet their business objectives. Understanding these implications could also provide a significant contribution to the business literature, especially in developing a new and dynamic conception of a company’s characteristics within knowledge management paradigm. The original value of this article provides an impetus for knowledge management development in corporations.

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After my discussion with executive colleagues, I have found that organisational knowledge is affected by various internal resources of organisations. Here are some of the ideas that I gathered from executive colleagues leading during the post-pandemic world:

1. Corporate Structure Executive colleagues mentioned that decentralisation encourages organisational communication, and develops a climate of openness for employees to exchange new ideas. Therefore, employees can even implement ideas through delegating the authority of decision-making to their departments. Furthermore, they expressed that an informal structure enhances organisational communication, and the less emphasis on formal language itself could generate more knowledge, because formal procedures and rules can restrict the generation of new ideas. The literature is also rich in this area as various scholars investigated the impact of these structural aspects on various knowledge management processes such as knowledge acquiring, creating, sharing, and utilising.

What will the post-pandemic knowledge management development pillars look like? | Feature

2. Corporate Culture

4. Inter-Companies Social Networks

When asking executive colleagues how corporate culture can work best for them. They argued that a collaborative culture improves knowledge management processes. They also mentioned that a leader’s ability to create new knowledge and develop more innovative solutions is considerably dependent on the degree to which employees trust them. Accordingly, organisations that exhibit a sense of a high trust environment could positively impact the tendencies of human capital to share their knowledge with others. Another aspect that executive colleagues expressed was learning. Learning is an important requisite for knowledge creation. Firms that stress cultural aspects of learning are stronger in creating new knowledge, and also transferring this knowledge throughout the organisation.

Executive colleagues expressed that inter-companies social networks enhance knowledge acquisition. We asked them so what?

They argued that the process of knowledge storing is highly dependent on the extent to which knowledge is transferred by these inter-companies social networks. This transference of knowledge itself can also improve knowledge utilisation and creation within organisations. As a result, inter-companies social networks can be positively related to knowledge management performance.

3. Corporate Strategy In the post-pandemic world, executives identified ‘analysis strategy’ as a component to improve knowledge management performance.

Analysis strategy is defined as the degree of tendency for searching of the problems and their roots aimed at generating better solution alternatives to solve them. Executive colleagues argued that analysis strategy is highly related to an organisation’s capacity to generate new ideas and knowledge. In addition, pro-activeness strategy refers to a search for finding new opportunities and proactively responding to current challenges in external environments. The implementation and application of knowledge management projects require the continuous search of a turbulent business environment that needs to be addressed to remain proactive and reduce possible stressors to company performance.

We asked executive colleagues how they felt about pro-activeness strategy. They responded that this strategy can be critical for enhancing the performance of knowledge management projects in organisations. Furthermore, they mentioned that a more defensiveness approach enhances efficiency through cutting the costs of the potentiality of future problems that may occur when an organisation remains reactive as opposed to proactive which in turn propels the process of knowledge reuse in companies.

5. Stakeholder Orientation Stakeholder orientation is another important aspect of knowledge management performance during the post-Covid-19 world.

Stakeholder orientation, as noted by executive colleagues, is directed to enhance the exchange of knowledge with various stakeholders and the application for more effective decisions. The executive colleagues I contacted told me that the knowledge exchanged is experience-based and highly relevant to both context and location, and can facilitate the generation of new knowledge, which represents those decisions and policies created by interacting with various stakeholders. Thus, a necessary precursor to the effective management of knowledge is to have a stakeholder orientation.

In Conclusion This article helps executives build more effective knowledge-based businesses and sustain the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In doing this, it provides elaborative insights for executives and senior managers by modelling how knowledge management performance can be affected by company characteristics. The evidence from this study suggests that these company characteristics include structure, culture, strategy, Inter-companies social networks and stakeholder orientation.

Mostafa Sayyadi works with senior business leaders to effectively develop innovation in companies, and helps companies—from startups to the Fortune 100—succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders. He is a business book author and a long-time contributor to business publications and his work has been featured in top-flight business publications.

Consulting Matters 31

Feature | Australia tops asia-pacific corporate inclusivity ranking

AUSTRALIA TOPS ASIA-PACIFIC

CORPORATE INCLUSIVITY RANKING An innovative study has been conducted examining employee inclusion of almost 150 companies across nine Asia-Pacific nations.

Based on the countries and companies studied, Australia was judged to be the region’s best performer.

Telstra, which received a company score of 92%, was hailed as the top-ranking organisation in the region, while Australian companies BHP Group, ANZ Bank, Fortescue Metals and Woolworths Group were also highlighted within the national Top 5, recognising their outstanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts.

The study, conducted by Equality Group supported by Equilibrium, a FiscalNote company, looked at leading organisations in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

Businesses were analysed across an array of industries, including finance, mining, technology, communications, and manufacturing.

Information gleaned from publicly available materials — such as an organisation’s website, social media profiles, HR policies, and ESG reports — was used to rank DEI performance using Equality Group’s Inclusive Index. (A short three-minute video explaining the methodology can be viewed here.)

Equality Group’s head of research, Dr. Keon West, said the difference between the best-performing country examined, Australia, and the worst, Indonesia, was remarkable. “Companies in Australia scored on average 76% while companies in Indonesia scored on average 24%.

Furthermore, the lowest-scoring Australian company still got a higher score (62%) than the highest-scoring Indonesian company (57%).

These country-level differences really seem to be meaningful,” Dr. West noted.

Dr. West said Australian companies tended to score highly for two key reasons. “They often had leadership teams which were genderdiverse, and their websites clearly outlined the recruitment strategies that were in place to ensure hiring of diverse candidates, particularly people from indigenous backgrounds,” he explained.

Alex Badenoch, Telstra Group Executive for Transformation, Communications and People, said: “At Telstra, we’ve had flexible working policies for the better part of a decade, giving our people greater work-life balance and choice. This flexibility, combined with our inclusive workplace practices, makes Telstra a leader in diversity, equity and inclusion. Our people tell us they’re proud to work for Telstra and we’re pleased that is reflected in the outcomes of this innovative study.”

“This is the first comprehensive study of DEI in Asia,” said Frank Meehan, CEO and co-founder of Equilibrium. Corporate leaders and government policymakers can learn a great deal from the study’s findings, Mr. Meehan believes. “We have uncovered some fascinating results about how nuanced different countries across the region are with regards to DEI, which particular companies are at the forefront in APAC, and which sectors they come from,” Mr. Meehan said.

Equality Group CEO Hephzi Pemberton detailed some of the lessons that could be learnt from the study. “Too often DEI topics are limited to the HR departments of companies, rather than the strategic growth and innovation domains where they also belong. The C-Suite and boards who take personal ownership of DEI are the ones who see real and tangible progress made. Business leaders need to realise the critical role they play in setting the DEI agenda for their organisation.

They set the tone from the top for others to follow,” she said.

Ms Pemberton continued: “There are proven upsides to adopting a DEI lens at the top of an organisation, including greater resilience, retention and innovation amongst your teams, and new products, customers, markets and stakeholders to be engaged with externally.”

The Equality Group and Equilibrium “Top APAC Companies Leading The Way In Inclusivity 2022 Research Study” was released Feb 21st 2022. For more information contact: Frank Meehan frank@eqm.ai About Equality Group Equality Group are a leading Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Consultancy who specialise in working within the investment and technology industries. They are a data driven firm with a scientific and research-based approach to their three services of Strategic Consultancy, Inclusion Education and Executive Search. They’re work includes CEO diversity studies across the FTSE, DEI studies across the Private Equity/Venture Capital sector, and more. https://www.equality.group/

About Equilibrium, a FiscalNote company Create, control, and communicate your ESG360TM story through Equilibrium, a holistic, sustainability data management solution. Go beyond a spreadsheet-based, checkbox approach to take charge of your ESG performance through cutting-edge AI technology, insights, and strategic advisory to drive decisions. Enhance stakeholder relations by measuring, benchmarking, and reporting your success across areas such as carbon accounting, DEI commitments, and regulatory compliance. https://www.eqm.ai/

32 Consulting Matters

Investment markets in a pandemic world | Business Essentials

INVESTMENT MARKETS IN A PANDEMIC WORLD Despite ongoing uncertainty from new COVID strains, we’ve seen the last six months produce strong investment returns.

Our Growth (MySuper) option delivered a 13.01%* return for our members for the twelve months through to December 2021.

2021 ended with the discovery of Omicron, a new COVID strain. This sent shockwaves through financial markets as they responded to renewed uncertainty. COVID itself and any new strains will continue to pose a risk to global growth and recovery. But, as the world adapts to living with the virus, thankfully each new wave has had a smaller impact on the economy and on financial markets.

Despite the potential for short-term disruption and ongoing risk from the pandemic, the global economy is expected to continue growing strongly in 2022. Economic activity should be supported by further reopening of international travel, households building a larger amount of savings during the pandemic, rising house prices and share markets.

However, this strong growth is starting to create additional inflation pressures, something that has been made worse by pandemicrelated disruptions to supply chains and extremely high demand for household goods. The combination of strong growth and higher inflation has seen most central banks around the world begin to remove some of the emergency stimulus programmes that have been in place.

Higher interest rates and strong economic growth should provide a positive environment for global share markets, although we are likely to see increased volatility and more modest overall increases.

But should high inflation force central banks to tighten policy more aggressively, for example through raising interest rates, then markets could be in for a trickier time in 2022.

Returns across 5, 10 and 15 years have outperformed the industry average, which is why it’s important to focus on the long-term nature of super.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

This information is about Cbus. It doesn’t take into account your specific needs, so you should look at your own financial position, objectives and requirements before making any financial decisions.

Read the relevant Cbus Product Disclosure Statement to decide whether Cbus is right for you. Also read the Target Market Determination at cbussuper.com.au/tmd. Call 1300 361 784 or visit cbussuper.com.au for a copy.

* The return for the Growth (MySuper) option is based on the crediting rate, which is returns minus investment fees, taxes and until 31 January 2020, the percentage-based administration fee. Excludes fees and costs that are deducted directly from members’ accounts.

† The average median return is taken from the SuperRatings Balanced (60-76) survey (December 2021). SuperRatings is a ratings agency that collects information from super funds to enable performance comparisons – visit superratings.com.au

Consulting Matters 33

Corporate Social Responsibility RedR Australia

HAND IN HAND:

ADDRESSING INCREASED AND EVOLVING HUMANITARIAN NEED REDR AUSTRALIA IS LOOKING TO ITS CONSULTING ENGINEERING ROOTS TO ENSURE SUSTAINABLE AND LASTING IMPACT FOR COMMUNITIES GLOBALLY.

Engineers and RedR Australia roster members Paul and Camilla were deployed to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Bangladesh to support the Rohingya refugee crisis.

When GHD civil engineer Camilla arrived in Bangladesh in 2018, the fast approaching dry season meant the Rohingya population living in Cox’s Bazar were facing five months of limited water supply.

Deployed through humanitarian response agency RedR Australia as a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Expert to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Camilla’s work focused on potential water sources and storage locations – including the design of a reservoir to service the refugees in Teknaf, the southern district of Cox’s Bazar.

Camilla’s deployment formed part of RedR Australia’s ongoing support to the Rohingya crisis, with the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar now home to around 850,000 people who fled systemic genocide, rape and torture in northern Myanmar in late 2017.

Since 2017, through Australia Assists – the Australian Government’s humanitarian civilian deployment program implemented by RedR Australia – more than 70 technical specialists have deployed to United Nations agencies in Bangladesh to support the response to the refugee crisis – representing RedR Australia’s largest single response to a humanitarian emergency in almost thirty years of operation.

34 Consulting Matters

RedR Australia roster members continue to work on the ground in Cox’s Bazar today. With Camilla’s work helping to provide up to 20,000 people with 20 litres of water per person per day, her deployment is just one example of the impact that engineers are having in humanitarian response around the world.

RedR Australia and the consulting engineering sector have a long history of collaboration both in Australia and abroad. Originally known as Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief, RedR Australia was established in 1992 by engineer Jeff Dobel, who called on his peers to apply their skills to disaster relief. Consult Australia and Engineers Australia are founding bodies, supporting RedR Australia to this day.

From our work helping communities to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, we know that engineering is key to humanitarian action.

We know the resilience communities derive from their infrastructure and how it keeps them physically and socially connected to support, trade and livelihoods. Infrastructure also enables people to keep in touch with loved ones, and access lifesaving and essential supplies and services before, during and after a disaster.

RedR Australia | Corporate Social Responsibility

The main water reservoir servicing Teknaf camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

The work of engineers remains at the core of quality humanitarian response. Simply put, when engineering and humanitarianism meet, lives are saved and communities can build resilience for the next generation.

As we look to the future of our sector and the rapidly increasing humanitarian need, RedR Australia envisions a world where communities can continue to rely on their infrastructure to keep them safe.

Our newly established Humanitarian Alliance has been created in partnership with some of Consult Australia’s member firms to allow us to maintain and build on our humanitarian impact through working together in a more concerted way.

Fighting climate change and achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is the challenge of our decade – but together, we can transform disaster prevention, preparedness and resilience.

Through the Alliance, we offer training on humanitarian principles for professional services consultants so that more experts like Camilla can build capacity in communities and make cities and settlements more safe, inclusive, robust and sustainable.

By working together on safer communities projects, the Alliance will help more professionals and sectors to understand and influence in real terms what safer social and physical infrastructure looks like.

The world is at a crossroad. To address the current and anticipated challenges facing individuals, families, communities and countries, we must all become much more responsible and accountable. Only this will ensure the world we leave behind is at least as good as the one we have enjoyed.

Camilla will join RedR Australia CEO Kirsten Sayers at the upcoming Consult Australia OneConsult conference. The pair will present on Thursday 31 March 2022 on humanitarian impact and environmental and social governance factors – sharing learnings from the field on designing physical and social infrastructure for the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Christie Long, Redr Australia

This includes our upcoming Corporate Humanitarian Challenge, a oneday team building and professional development opportunity providing insights into the challenges faced by humanitarians and affected communities when responding to crises. Put Friday 24 June in your diaries – it’s a must for those wanting a taster of the sector.

The Alliance will not only benefit humanitarian response, but assist firms to improve staff engagement, retention and leadership opportunities, with short-term deployments allowing the opportunity to build human capital, currency and networks.

The Alliance will also help the sector to meet its environmental and social governance aspirations, allowing firms to demonstrate and measure their responsibility and sustainability impact.

At RedR Australia, our people are already working side by side with and for communities dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis and conflict.

Consulting Matters 35

Project Case Study | Stantec

CONSTRUCTING THE WORLD'S

LARGEST MINING SOLAR AND BATTERY STORAGE PROJECT

Construction is now underway on one of the world’s largest off-grid mining solar and battery energy storage systems, with Stantec working as the project management consultant on this ground-breaking project.

The Northern Goldfields Solar Project in Western Australia, being built

by TransAlta to help power BHP Nickel West’s Mt Keith and Leinster operations, includes a 27.4 MW solar farm at Mt Keith, a 10.7 MW solar farm and a 10.1 MW battery at Leinster, and will be integrated into TransAlta’s Northern Goldfields remote power grid.

Reducing emissions The project, which will reduce the amount of power to the mines currently supplied by diesel and gas, will help BHP Nickel West reduce scope 2 emissions at its Mt Keith and Leinster operations by 12 per cent, resulting in an estimated reduction of 54,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.

Local engagement The construction phase of the project is set to create more than 100 direct and indirect jobs in the Goldfields and Perth regions and is expected to produce its first solar power in the second half of 2022.

36 Consulting Matters

The project aims to employ Traditional Owners from the Tijwarl Native Title Holders. Both TransAlta and BHP have prioritised their stakeholder engagement with the Tjiwarl Traditional Owners to understand what is important to them throughout the planning, development, and construction of the project.

Striving for net zero The Northern Goldfields Solar Project is TransAlta’s first renewable energy project in Australia. This project contributes to achieving TransAlta’s target of a 75 per cent greenhouse gas emissions reduction over 2015 levels by 2026 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

Stantec share similar goals, pledging to become carbon neutral in 2022 and then net zero by 2030. As a business we are fully focused on assisting our clients with energy transition initiatives. We bring our global energy experts together as a one-stop-shop to delivering renewable energy projects from concept through to planning and design, commissioning, and start-up.

For more information about our energy transition offering click here.

More than three quarters of Australians want | Industry Comment single use plastics banned – Ipsos survey

MORE THAN THREE QUARTERS OF AUSTRALIANS WANT SINGLE USE PLASTICS BANNED – IPSOS SURVEY

An average of more than eight in 10 Australians would like to see an international treaty to combat plastic pollution

Globally, Latin American and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries show the highest levels of agreement with banning singleuse plastic, at 88% and 80% respectively, while North America has the lowest levels of agreement at 61%.

An average of three-quarters (77%) of Australians and a similar number of people across 28 countries agree that single-use plastic should be banned as soon as possible, the ‘Attitudes towards singleuse plastic’ survey by Ipsos in conjunction with Plastic Free July has revealed.

The highest levels of agreement with banning single-use plastics are seen in Colombia (89%), Chile and Mexico (both 88%), and Argentina and China (both 84%), and the lowest levels in Japan (37%), the United States (55%) and Canada (66%).

In addition, 86% of Australians, and on average 88% of people globally, believe it is essential, very important or fairly important to have an international treaty to combat plastic pollution.

The five countries with the highest levels of agreement are Mexico (96%), Brazil (95%), Colombia (94%), and Chile and Peru (both 92%).

Those with the lowest ones are Japan (70%), the US (78%) and Canada (79%).

Key Australian findings: • 82% agree that they want to buy products that use as little plastic packaging as possible (in line with the global average) • 86% agree that manufacturers and retailers should be responsible for reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic packaging (slightly higher than the global average of 85%) The study was conducted among 20,513 adults under the age of 75 across 28 countries on Ipsos’s Global Advisor online platform.

Ipsos Australia Director, Stuart Clark, said: “These results make it very clear that there is a strong consensus globally that single-use plastics should be taken out of circulation as quickly as possible.

“The fact that there is such strong support for an international treaty to address the single- use plastics shows that people see this as a challenge that all countries have to solve together.

“People want to do the right thing. An average of 82 percent of people surveyed want to buy products that minimise plastic packaging. They want that change to happen quickly and they want their governments to support it.”

Plastic Free July®, is a global movement (by the not-for-profit Plastic Free Foundation) helping people take action to end plastic waste by choosing to refuse single-use plastic. The Ipsos study will be featured by Plastic Free July and WWF leading up to the upcoming UN Environmental Assembly (UNEA) 5.2. One decision to be made at UNEA will be whether to start negotiations on a new global agreement to reduce plastic waste and unsustainable production of single use plastics and address marine plastic pollution.

Clear majorities of consumers in every country and a global average of 82% also agree they prefer products that use as little plastic packaging as possible. Again, Latin America and BRIC countries show the highest levels of agreement at 89% and 84% respectively. At the country level, China, Mexico, and Colombia top the list with 92% agreement, followed by Chile (90%) and Peru (87%). Again, Japan is the country with the lowest percentage agreeing (56%), followed by the US (71%) and the Netherlands (73%).

Vast majorities of people in all 28 countries agree that manufacturers and retailers should take responsibility for reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic packaging, with a global average of 85%. Latin Americans are those who are most in agreement (89%), followed by Europeans. Public opinion in Japan is not as unanimous with only 72% agreeing with the statement.

The five countries where support for having manufacturers and retailers take responsibility for reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic packaging is highest are Brazil, China, Great Britain, and Mexico, all at 90%, and Sweden at 89%, while those least likely to agree were Japan (72%), Saudi Arabia and South Korea both at 79%.

This 28-country Global Advisor survey was conducted between August 20th and September 3rd 2021 via the Ipsos Online Panel system among 20,513 adults aged 18-74 in Canada, Israel, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States, and 16-74 in all 21 other countries.

Stuart Clark Director, Ipsos stuart.clark@ipsos.com

Consulting Matters 37

Visit our public training courses here!

THINKING ABOUT

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Consult Australia offers a range of in-house Professional Development courses that can be tailored specifically to suit your firm’s requirements. In-house training encourages greater team work and builds awareness and understanding of each other’s roles in the organisation by enabling group discussion to be based around real examples that are specific to your business environment and policies.

CONTRACTS FOR CONSULTANTS This intensive 2.5 day training seminar is aimed at those who are regularly confronted with client contracts. The course provides essential advice and insight on managing and controlling contractual rights and obligations. It is conducted in a small group interactive format and has helped those with both limited and extensive experience to deal more effectively with contracts and their various terms and conditions. Tools and advice are given on how to develop fair and reasonable contractual relationships with clients.

ROLE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT The Superintendent’s role is a complex one. It requires a sound understanding of the law of contract, substantial engineering skills, and in particular, an understanding of the provisions of the particular project outcomes. This intensive and interactive training program teaches you how to confidently manage the various Superintendent duties, the dual roles of the Superintendent, and how to avoid common legal traps.

MANAGING PROJECTS FOR DISPUTES AND CLAIMS Claims and disputes are a common feature of construction projects in Australia and every business needs teams who are alive to this risk and have the skills that can respond.

This intensive 2 day interactive workshop is designed to provide the participants with the knowledge and practical skills and tools needed to understand and navigate this very real risk.

The workshop is ideal for both those delivering the projects, technical leads, project managers and commercial managers, as well as your in-house legal, finance and commercial teams.

An overview of the courses and standard rates for our inhouse courses can be at following link beside

MORE INFO

MORE INFORMATION For more information about education opportunities, please contact the Consult Australia on 02 8252 6700 or email education@consultaustralia.com.au.