HKA outlines path to better collaborative contracting in Australia’s infrastructure sector
Australia’s infrastructure sector is struggling to translate the promise of collaborative contracting into consistent project outcomes, contends a new report from global consulting firm HKA.
The white-paper, titled ‘Collaborative Contracting – Dispelling the Myths’, calls for an industry reset to improve how collaboration is approached at a time of escalating costs, supply chain pressure, and increasing project complexity.
This, HKA argues, will be critical to meeting challenges across the sector, but effective adoption will require organisations to overcome certain barriers, such as owner readiness, inconsistent governance, and a lack of supply chain integration.
“The industry talks a lot about collaboration, but many organisations are still not set up to deliver it,” commented HKA partner Amri Denton. “Too often, we refine and change contracts without changing the capabilities, governance and behaviours needed. For many, the priority now must be building the readiness, capability and confidence to make it work in practice.”
Co-authored by Denton and fellow HKA commercial advisory expert Shreya Shah while drawing on the firm’s extensive experience across project delivery, procurement, and dispute resolution, and with further input from a cross-section of industry stakeholders, the new whitepaper is intended to act as a practical guide for enhancing collaborative maturity and capacity.
While noting that “collaborative contracting” is broader rather than single model, the consulting firm says that when done right it can materially improve risk and delivery outcomes, with the authors examining some of the common factors for successful arrangements, including clarity of purpose, disciplined governance, aligned incentives, and genuine integration across the ecosystem.
As well as addressing the critical capability gaps, the white-paper also aims to challenge what it says are entrenched industry behaviours and often long‑held but outdated misconceptions, such as for example the belief that collaboration is synonymous with ‘alliancing’, that it requires a disproportionate effort to establish, or that it weakens commercial accountability.
“Collaborative contracting is neither a silver bullet nor a failed experiment, but its success depends on how it’s implemented,” the report concludes. “The debate should therefore move beyond binary comparisons between approaches and instead focus on whether organisations possess the capability and maturity required to operate collaborative delivery effectively.”
Headquartered in London, HKA has a global headcount in excess of 1,100 professionals spread across more than 45 offices worldwide, including in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth. The firm recently recruited former McKinsey partner Tino Grabbert to lead its advisory division for the Asia Pacific, which operates alongside its expert disputes resolution and litigation practice.
