The Ninth Directors-General lunch in Queensland opens the door for Consult Australia member businesses.
June 2025
Queensland Forum Strengthens Industry Voice
Consult Australia has hosted an annual Directors-General luncheon in Queensland since 2016. This year’s event was the first with the new state government, and it was a powerful roundtable with open and frank conversation about challenges and opportunities.
This year Consult Australia business leaders were joined by:
- Damien Walker, Director-General Premier and Cabinet,
- Sally Stannard, Director-General Transport and Main Roads and
- Mark Cridland, Director-General Housing and Public Works.
The theme for this year’s event was ‘The Power of Partnership: A Model for Government-Industry Collaboration’ with a focus on the opportunities and challenges shaping Queensland’s infrastructure, housing and transport landscape in the decade ahead.
Participants recognised that as the national focus increasingly shifts to Queensland, with a contraction in transport spending in Victoria and New South Wales, Queensland has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to set new benchmarks for public-private collaboration.
Damien Walker noted key challenges faced by the new government and spoke to the real value of taking a partnership approach with industry, especially in delivering the infrastructure program.
With this in mind, Consult Australia members shared their collective experience and expertise on how we can learn from the past to do better in Queensland and nationally. It was a lively discussion, covering productivity, capacity, collaboration, digital, pipeline and legacy.
Consult Australia members identified four critical priorities for government action:
- Pipeline certainty: Members have capacity and are waiting for projects to be released to market. Government should be looking to accelerate market sounding and procurement of the forward pipeline to provide business confidence.
- Collaborative procurement models: Moving away from design-and-construct to relationship-building contracting models will improve project delivery outcomes through greater client engagement and collaboration.
- Unravelling risk: Management of risk has become prescriptive and there needs to be a move to proactive, commercial discussions on risk to deliver the forward pipeline.
- Digital by default: Technology advances offer productivity solutions, and government adoption is slow. Members encouraged government to promote digital by default and innovation, recognising this as essential for modern project delivery and to deliver productivity outcomes.
"This was a fantastic forum that enabled rich discussion with Queensland government leaders and Consult Australia members. The government confirmed they are open to our ideas to improve procurement and delivery of projects and transform Queensland," said Tasos Katopodis, Consult Australia President.
This forum highlights how collective advocacy can drive improved industry outcomes. Forums of this kind require a commitment of collaboration between leaders. In Queensland the Department of Premier and Cabinet has driven this engagement from a government perspective and coordinated attendees. We would love to see this championing of collaboration in other jurisdictions.
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