The Civil Contractors Federation urged Federal, State and Territory Infrastructure Ministers to back its 5-point civil infrastructure stimulus plan ahead of the ‘Transport and Infrastructure Ministerial Council Meeting’ on Friday 5th June 2020.

The Civil Contractors Federation is repeating it’s call to harness the economic capacity of the civil infrastructure sector following yesterday’s confirmation that the Australian economy is in recession, and the announcement of a housing construction stimulus that will not have a measurable effect on the civil infrastructure sector.

Chief Executive Officer of Civil Contractors Federation National, Chris Melham, said the civil infrastructure sector (the construction of roads, rail, bridges, pipelines, utilities, etc) has excess capacity to take on more infrastructure projects and employ tens of thousands more workers.

The 5 measures put before Infrastructure Ministers include:

Measure 1 – Maximise capacity of the civil construction sector as evidenced by a recent CCF National member survey that found the civil construction sector has significant capacity to tender for additional infrastructure projects and a subsequent need to employ more workers if governments rolled out additional project funding.

Measure 2 – Bring forward infrastructure spending and accelerate shovel ready projects across all civil sectors, including road, rail, bridges, utilities, drainage and telecommunications.

Measure 3 – Disaggregation of large projects where possible to encourage expressions of interest from tier 2 and tier 3 companies, and that project allocation be spread across all jurisdictions to ensure widespread community benefits are realized from the stimulus spend.

Measure 4 – Funding to increase infrastructure investment should be derived from the $60 billion Job Keeper savings and by using debt funding for productive infrastructure to stimulate the economy both during and after this economic crisis whilst interest rates are at historically low levels.

Measure 5 – Procurement agencies should simplify their procurement processes where possible and work more closely with civil construction companies via collaborative contract arrangements.

Ministers attending tomorrow’s TIC meeting are urged to take action on the CCF’s 5-point civil infrastructure plan to boost the economy and support jobs in this worsening economic climate,” Mr Melham concluded.

For further information: Mr Duncan Sheppard, CCF National Executive Officer, 0438 330 039