Collaborative projects and the state of alliancing

Collaborative contracting is alive and well, adapting to meet the changing policy landscape while continuing to tackle project complexity through relationship skill and enhanced productivity.

Public sector agency representatives are actively applying and developing the principles of collaborative contracting and shared their perspectives with local and overseas peers at the Alliancing Association of Australasia’s (AAA) 2011 national convention in Brisbane in October 2011.

Alliancing practitioners related their experiences over the past 12 months in applying alliancing to meet the challenges of delivering difficult infrastructure projects, including in disaster-torn communities in Christchurch and Queensland.

Many are procuring projects through a mix of competitive and non-competitive selection processes in response to the new National Alliancing Contracting framework introduced this year by the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Anthony Albanese.

While some felt that the new guidelines are impeding traditional alliances, particularly in relation to the challenge of sharing information and collaborating with stakeholders within probity frameworks, others acknowledged the change has boosted other forms of collaborative contracting.

Following are some of the themes that emerged during 2011 around collaborative contracting and learnings which can assist private infrastructure development, particularly in challenging areas such as power, mining and energy, where huge economic opportunity will be influenced by how human resource shortages, cost and time risks are addressed.

Read more in the State of Alliancing whitepaper.