February 2026

The timing of togetherness

Jonathan Cartledge, Chief Executive Officer, Consult Australia

Collaboration is about togetherness. But it’s also about timing.

Australia is entering a compressed delivery window as major infrastructure programs – spanning defence, renewable energy and the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games – begin to converge.

Consider just a few headlines from the last few weeks.

The Australian Government has committed a $3.9 billion down payment to deliver the new Submarine Construction Yard at Osborne in South Australia, with total investment expected to reach $30 billion over coming decades. Construction will require an estimated 126,000 tonnes of structural steel, roughly the equivalent of 17 Eiffel Towers.

At the same time, some of Australia’s biggest renewables developers are advancing an “audacious plan” to create an Inland Renewable Energy Region in far western New South Wales, supporting more than 10 gigawatts of new solar and wind generation.

And in Queensland, the Crisafulli Government has legislated a fast-tracked delivery pathway for priority venues, villages and transport projects ahead of the 2032 Games, as the state’s building and infrastructure pipeline expands to $120 billion, according to new analysis from Consult Australia member WT.

Each of these investments is nationally significant. And each depends on the capability and capacity of Consult Australia members to deliver.

That’s why the timing of this year’s CollabX, to be held from 25–26 March in Canberra, matters. This face-to-face, system-wide conversation between government and industry is more than heads talking to an audience. Yes, the program has a strong line-up of speakers on issues of national importance. But its real value lies in giving people the time to talk with each other – not at each other.

The timing of the conference is deliberate. With Defence preparing its 2026 National Defence Strategy, CollabX lands at the point where industry input can help shape priorities, rather than simply respond to them.

CollabX is one expression of collaboration at the right moment. Our new collaborative advocacy agreement with the Association of Consulting Architects Australia is another. Consult Australia’s membership includes multidisciplinary firms providing architecture services. In addition, our engineering, environmental and advisory firms are working on the same projects, under the same commercial pressures as consulting architecture firms. Addressing issues shaping delivery that cut across disciplines requires aligned business voices, not parallel conversations.

Finally, if you’ll allow me to extend the metaphor, Thursday 5 March is our time to celebrate the progress we’ve made collectively over the past 12 months at the Consult Australia Awards for Excellence. Nominations are up by more than 50% this year, and I don’t think that’s coincidental. Collaboration is becoming a unit of success, and more work is worthy of applause because it’s genuinely shared.

Taken together, CollabX, our work with ACA and the Awards reflect the same idea: the right collaboration, at the right time, changes what comes next.