Poorly managed risk is fuelling disputes, driving up costs and threatening construction industry stability. How do we unravel risk?

“Risk is rising across Australia’s construction industry – but risk management isn’t keeping up,” says Consult Australia Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Cartledge.

Unravelling Risk explores the underlying causes of disputation in Australia’s construction industry and its growing impact on design, advisory and engineering consulting businesses. 

“As projects grow in complexity, the dispute culture has become deeply entrenched. The talk of collaboration and risk-sharing is not translating into practice. Risk is being used as a throwaway justification for unfair contracts, when what we really need is communication, accountability and meaningful reform.”

Key findings

Unravelling risk combines data from Consult Australia member organisations, local and global insurers, and risk specialists to map how risk is too often shifted – not managed – with serious consequences. 

Among the findings are: 

Five reforms to untangle the knot

To break the design-construct-litigate cycle, Unravelling Risk proposes five targeted reform ‘threads’ – each informed by claims data and underpinned by collaboration and transparency. These reforms are:

“These are not abstract ideas – they are practical fixes. We are taking them to more than 30 government forums across Australia this year with one clear message: let’s work together to reform risk.”