September 2013 Newsletter

The big news for September was the announcement of a new government with Tony Abbot leading the Coalition to a resounding victory. As with all major political developments the knock on effect on the construction and engineering sector will be significant. The promise of new investment, increased confidence, private investment and the removal of the mining tax all of which will have an impact on the hiring plans of organisations across the country.

In this month’s newsletter we will look at the infrastructure spend commitments from the liberal government and will also provide a snapshot of the market from CGC HQ.

Where’s the money going?

The coalition has committed over $20B in new or upgraded infrastructure, so where is this money going to be spent?
• $6.7 billion to fix Queensland’s Bruce Highway;
• $1.5 billion to ensure the Westconnex project gets underway in Sydney;
• $405 million for the SydneyF3 to M2 link;
• $1.5 billion to commence construction for the East West Link in Melbourne;
• $1 billion to support the Gateway Motorway upgrade in Brisbane;
• $615 million to build the Swan Valley Bypass on the Perth to Darwin Highway;
• $686 million to build the Perth Gateway project;
• $500 million to support the upgrade of Adelaide’s North-South Road Corridor;
• $400 million to upgrade the Midland Highway in Tasmania; and
• $5.6 billion to complete the duplication of the Pacific Highway from Newcastle to the Queensland border.

Based on the above the big winner will be the roads sector with heavy investment across the major cities and regional links. It will be interesting to see the impact on the rail and power sectors with the lack of federal budgetary commitment and the knock on effect this will have on State funded projects. In the main however the commitments outlined by the new government, if they come through, should enhance confidence within the engineering and civil construction sectors and lead to an increase in hiring activity come the turn of the year.

What’s currently hot?

At a local level we have seen demand increase significantly within the urban development and residential construction sectors. An increase in private sector funding / confidence have seen demand increase for experienced Civil Design Engineers, Land Development Project Managers and Residential Site / Project Manager (construction). The retail sector remains strong as we found on a recent site visit to a client in Brisbane see photo below. In addition engineering and construction professionals with specialist healthcare experience remain in high demand.

CGC News…

Over the last month the CGC office has been gearing up for the upcoming 9km Bridge Run. With 7 members of the team running for the Sisters of Charity Outreach it promises to be a hotly contested race.
Look out for next month’s newsletter for pictures from the event.

We are still recruiting…

We are keen to speak with experienced consultants with a technical recruitment background in the Engineering and / or Construction sectors. For further information please contact David Cox for further information.