Next week, 22 June 2021, we will see the release of the South Australian State budget. We are excited about the 2021/22 infrastructure commitments and how they will translate into project starts. Over the last several months, we gathered your feedback and developed your ‘Digging Deep for South Australia’ document; highlights include:

Civil Workforce and Apprentices

“The State Government has a once in a generation opportunity to create a sustainable South Australian civil construction workforce. This requires meaningful funding and creative reform of skill development, training approaches and worker engagement supporting the whole of population activation.

“CCF SA seeks State Government support for youth entry into the civil industry via a fully funded Civil ‘Flexible Industry Pathway’ in Schools (Civil Industry Cadetships via Stackable VET). To date, the civil industry has not had a funded pathway in schools, it does not attract Training Guarantee for SACE Students (TGSS) funding or new 2022 Flexible Industry Pathways funding which has been recently released. A billion dollar industry, providing secure, long-term and lucrative civil careers, and today, it stands with a new innovative cadetship in schools but with no funding.

“The civil industry is a critical workforce. It builds essential public structures and services – roads, bridges, pipelaying, traffic, tunnels, foundations – for our South Australian community. Unlike other trades, there is a unique opportunity for direct Department of Infrastructure hosting of civil apprentices via industry backed Group Training Organisations. This direct hosting not only eases financial and commercial pressures on small and large civil businesses working to deliver state infrastructure projects, it also supports improved apprenticeship outcomes.  

“Increased civil industry focused training incentives for workers and civil businesses. With SA’s tunnel project set to commence, funding is also needed to complete a civil industry workforce capacity and capability report to identify training needs.

“Civil Apprenticeships should receive fair and equitable distribution of funding in comparison to other traditional trades, but employers of Civil Apprentices receive $4k less than other traditional trades.”

Infrastructure Project Planning, Accountabilities and Small/Medium Enterprise (SME) Opportunities

“CCF SA seeks a budget that supports the commencement of projects (both Federal and State funded) already committed/announced and that these projects are awarded to industry in a manner which benefits whole of industry across all Tiers – smallest to the largest.

“Achieve a sustainable future works programme, supported by industry led robust bipartisan planning, including new and maintenance projects. Including early identification and prioritisation of projects including regular State submissions to Infrastructure Australia.

“Independent monitoring and reporting on Government Facilities Manager Partners, including industry engagement, with a primary focus on greater small business participation and opportunity.

“Obtain consistent and adequate annual budget and forward estimate allowance to maintain roads, services, bridges, and other public infrastructure. South Australia investment to be above the Australian average infrastructure investment per capita.

“Fund Industry undertakings to support the determination of South Australian infrastructure priorities – including the facilitation of direct submissions to Infrastructure Australia.

“State Government develops a policy that is very deliberately designed to ensure government work is made available to local SME businesses. Further, Government agencies are compelled to comply with such a policy. A % of works allocated to SMEs.”

CLICK HERE for your copy of Digging Deep for South Australia, CCF SA's Civil Infrastructure Priorities.