Dr James Cameron, ACIF Executive Director

In July this year, Consult Australia rejoined the Australian Construction Industry Forum (ACIF), after an absence of several years. The ACIF Board and I were both very glad to have Consult Australia back at the table, and an active participant again.

ACIF was started in the year 2000 to bring together the main associations in the Australian construction industry to discuss and collectively make progress on the most significant issues facing the industry.    

Currently, ACIF has 25 member professional and trade associations and represents around 250,000 employees in the industry All come together to learn from each other and share their different perspectives. 

Our members meet four times a year, and we alternate between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. We often have federal and state ministers attend our meetings or heads of the building regulators. For example, Minister Mick de Brenni attended our meeting in Brisbane in February this year, and NSW Building Commissioner, David Chandler OAM, attended our meeting in Sydney in May.

ACIF progresses various policy issues on behalf of our members, and issues policy priority documents to provide to various key stakeholders. Our policy priorities for 2023-24 are: 

1. Address skills and materials shortages in the construction industry: Among the measures we advocate are a properly funded, integrated, and resourced VET system; using the Group Training Model for vocational trades to de-risk employment for SMEs; and targeted funding for university courses. 

2. Improve the culture of the Australian construction industry: This includes support for mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention in the construction industry; measures to increase the number of women entering and staying in the construction industry across all disciplines; and policies to lower the number of average working hours.

3. Implement the recommendations of the Review of Security of Payment Laws: John Murray AM made a series of recommendations that will greatly improve the level of protection afforded to the construction industry subcontractors and ensure that they obtain prompt payment for the work they have completed. 

4. Implement the recommendations of the Building Confidence Report: This report, released in April 2018, outlined deficiencies in the building regulatory system and a range of recommendations, including that every state and territory set up a body or departmental capability similar to the Victorian Cladding Taskforce, and the federal government to legislate and fund if certain states will not do this in a timely manner. 

5. Address the issue of professional indemnity insurance for professions in the construction industry: ACIF recommends options for professional indemnity insurance premiums to reflect the level of risk, the qualifications and experience of the holder(s), membership of a recognised professional association, mandatory CPD, written professional standards and an assessment of professional competence. The Tax Practitioners Board has a good framework for recognising professional associations. Rather than premiums being based on turnover they should be assessed against risk.

ACIF has a strategic partnership with our government counterpart, the Australasian Procurement and Construction Council (APCC), and we hold joint meetings and work on joint projects. Together, we set up the Australasian BIM Advisory Board (ABAB) in 2016 to progress the consistent implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) across Australia and New Zealand.

ACIF undertakes forecasting for the industry and produces the ACIF Forecasts every six months, in May and November. Our forecasts cover engineering, non-residential and residential construction, divided into 20 sub-categories that align with the ABS. We have two forecasting products, the Australian Construction Market Report and the Customised Forecasts Dashboard. The latter retails for $330 per subscriber, but is available at no charge to members of ACIF members as a benefit of membership. The ACIF Forecasts are overseen by the Construction Forecasting Council and are held in high esteem by the industry.

ACIF membership has grown in recent years, and only looks set to grow further. We continue to expand our services for members and raise our profile. It is a case of “onwards and upwards” for ACIF, its member associations and the Australian construction industry!