On Thursday 11 August a meeting was convened between our Chapter President Rob Henry, Chapter Manager, Leanne Hardwicke and Practice Committee representative, Shoba Cole and Michael Hopkins, Deputy Executive Director of the Master Builder Association of the ACT. The main topic of discussion was the impact of current Government tendering practices in the building sector. Prior to this meeting, Rob met with Catherine Keirnan, ACT Chapter President of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.

This is a topic that has had the highest priority for the Practice Committee, as we understand its impacts on a large number of Institute members. At the beginning of June, we prepared talking points for Rob Henry on this topic, which he took into a meeting with Sophie Gray, Acting Director Health Infrastructure of Procurement and Capital Works (PWC). From this meeting, a PCW forum was instigated by Government to provide an overview of government tendering practices and encouraging communication between the two sectors. This forum facilitated a robust dialogue between members and Government, resulting in the preparation of an issues paper that outlined key industry concerns.

The focus of the paper is to outline our concerns regarding Interactive Tendering. Leanne with assistance from Institute members prepared a draft paper, which has now been finalised and co-signed by the Master Builders Association of the ACT, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects ACT Chapter, the Australian Institute of Building and the Canberra Division of Engineers Australia. These organisations collectively represent the ACT construction industry.

The cross industry paper has been sent to the Executive Director of Shared Services Procurement, Director-General Economic Development, the ACT Local Industry Advocate, and the office of the Chief Minister.

We regard this as a success for the Institute and the Practice Committee, where we are actively pursuing the best interest of our members and do this in collaboration with other organisations in our field in order to maximise our leverage.

This is only just the beginning, and the Practice Committee will do its best to advocate equal opportunity and fair chances for our membership and the profession as a whole. If you want to be part of this and help out at the Practice Committee, contact Leanne Hardwicke for further details at Leanne.Hardwicke@architecture.com.au.