Consult Australia has warned against the dangers of “planning failure” on infrastructure projects in a new report it has just released. The report, Protecting Cost Certainty, highlights that scope uncertainty, unrealistic assumptions and poorly allocated risk compound over time until infrastructure projects become increasingly difficult to deliver within budget. “Too often what is described as a delivery failure is really a planning failure,” said Jonathan Cartledge, chief executive officer of Consult Australia.

At a recent Consult Australia Large Firms Forum, more than 20 leaders spoke frankly about the challenge of investing in people, technology and capability when the forward infrastructure pipeline keeps shifting. “Firms cannot build specialist teams or regional capacity on stop-start signals,” Cartledge said.

“Infrastructure projects are never just lines in a budget paper. Long before they break ground, communities prepare, supply chains invest and businesses involved in design and delivery make decisions based on what governments say is coming next. So, when major projects stall, shrink or disappear, the impacts land with Consult Australia members,” he said.

Cartledge said that discussions at Consult Australia’s Large Firms Forum also reinforced how quickly the engineering profession is changing. “As artificial intelligence, cyber risk and digital capability reshape the way firms operate, every dollar tied up in duplicated state licensing is a dollar not invested in building future skills,” he said.

“If there is one thread running through the federal budget, which committed another $12.1bn to infrastructure projects, and all the conversations I’ve had this month, it is this – that announcing projects is the easy part. Building the conditions to deliver them – certainty, capability and collaboration – is where the real work sits. And this is the work we are focused on,” said Cartledge.

Click here to download the Protecting Cost Certainty report.