Consult Australia is partnering with NEC Contracts to promote reform across infrastructure and construction.

The partnership is intended to build awareness and adoption of contract standardisation in Australia across the private and public sectors.

Consult Australia’s members and its more than 30,000 employees will have access to a library of contracts and training that help apply good project management principles and practices through the NEC Contract Suite. 

NEC’s latest international partnership provides an opportunity to reposition contracts in the Australian market, shifting them from the legal profession to a tool for consultants helping to drive better project outcomes. For national and international projects, this shift facilitates improvements across collaboration and cost savings as well as notably shorter procurement times.

Consult Australia and NEC have a strong history of collaboration, most notably during the drafting of the Y Clauses for Australia in 2021. Y clauses support the growth of NEC contracts globally by enabling country-specific legislation to be easily integrated into the standard contracts. NEC has long been recognised as a leading practice standard contract, suitable for Consult Australia members and their clients, including government bodies, and importantly, auditable for use in Australia.

Discussing the partnership, Director of NEC Contracts Global, Rekha Thawrani OBE, said, “We are pleased to announce our latest collaboration with Consult Australia, further strengthening our ongoing partnership. This international partnership is a significant milestone for us as we build on enthusiasm from the industry to move towards collaborative procurement and standardisation.” 

Consult Australia’s CEO, Jonathan Cartledge, said, “Consult Australia and NEC share a commitment to delivering better outcomes for both industry and government from Australia’s infrastructure investment. This includes value for money from public expenditure and business certainty and success. 

“We know that procurement reform, better risk management and the delivery of standard contracting with collaboration at the core is long overdue.  This partnership with NEC and Consult Australia reflects our longstanding goals to improve procurement and delivery, shift the culture of the industry, and drive better outcomes on projects. 

“As we look to opportunities to drive productivity, decarbonise through procurement and support innovation and digitalisation we need to learn from global best practice like NEC.  This partnership provides the foundation for a new conversation across industry and with government about how we deliver these outcomes in Australia. We look forward to seeing it progress.” 

“Consult Australia members will also be able to access discounts for NEC products and training to help build knowledge and better support the broader adoption of NEC in the Australian market – cementing both entities’ shared commitment to building and improving collaborative lifecycle contract standardisation in the Australian market.”

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