CCNZ president Brian Warren opened the 2017 association conference in Dunedin last month. Reporting by ALAN TITCHALL.
“SMART CONTRACTING ISN’T just the sole responsibility of us as contractors, it also lies with the principles and we’ve been putting quite a bit of effort into trying to achieve – or stop – the bastardisation of standard documents, trying to get people to come to grips with one prequalification system and trying to get some theory and assessment of things through some of the tender evaluation processes.
“You don’t need me to tell you that we haven’t been very successful with this yet. It’s a long road and we have certainly got some people helping us with that, but we’re going to keep hammering away at it.
“It is a bit of a dream of mine if we can get to simplifying and achieving efficiency in that procurement process.
“Civil Trades is another one of my pet subjects. We’ve put a bit of effort into that, we’ve got a bit of traction, and we need to keep that going.
“It isn’t just somebody else’s job to train people. Everyone of us, every contractor needs to do it and get on board if we are going to stand a dog’s chance of getting anything like the 30,000 people into the workforce that we are told we need in the next five years.
“When you consider there’s only 45,000 or so of us in the industry at the moment then an extra 30,000 in the next five years is a heck of a lot of people. So there’s a fair bit of work to do there on that.
“The subcontract agreement – this is an opportunity from Kensington Swan. Get some friendly legal advice – you don’t often get friendly legal advice.
“We put a new subcontract agreement together, and it needs to be used now. So Kensington Swan are going to be here over the next couple of days, pitch on up to them, have a yarn and get using that document – it will help you at some stage.
“We’re about to launch our World Careers Promotion campaign and this is about trying to help us get people into the industry and actually tell those that aren’t involved what a nice place it is to be, and what a great opportunity for a career that we have and can offer. So, we’re about to launch that. It’s going to be a bit of an undertaking and we’re going to need some help right through the country to deliver a consistent message.
“You have a lot to listen to over the next couple of days. What I will say though is make the conference worth your participation; don’t just be a spectator – interact. Being a spectator ain’t going to work, you get out what you put in. So just interact.”