Navigating the fast-track: The role of communications and engagement in infrastructure development
Government recently announced new legislation to fast-track the consenting process for infrastructure projects of national significance. With a $200 billion infrastructure deficit across the country, we support efforts aimed at unlocking critical projects and fostering greater efficiency. We are woefully behind where we need to be.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on the bill, and are particularly keen to better understand how environmental and community perspectives will be built into the criteria for eligibility for the programme, or for the projects that are approved.
With the overall goal of planning, approving and building faster; we want to flag a risk that can undermine the whole ballgame: Poor project communications and engagement.
While fast-tracking gets you out of the gate quickly, insufficient communication and community engagement can create an environment of angst, confusion and stifled outcomes. This often leads to delay, which defeats the purpose of ‘fast-track’ efficiency.
An audit by Infrastructure Australia highlighted that about A$20 billion has been wasted on projects delayed or cancelled due to community opposition in the previous decade. Add to that the reputational damage to government agencies and contractors, as well as the lack of trust and scepticism engrained with the community.
Despite all of this, meaningful communications and engagement can be overlooked as either unnecessary or deemed too time-consuming. Or in some cases, it’s seen as far too scary and unpredictable. The reality of this philosophy is that it often leads to public outrage and projects being halted, re-shaped or cancelled entirely, ironically costing far more and taking longer to deliver.
Although it can be daunting, it’s essential to involve the end-user of a project. Both in navigating the day-to-day impact of a major project, but also in improving it. There is tremendous value in taking a plan developed in an office and testing it with those who will use it, and who can add vital local knowledge to make it even better.
We need to appropriately invest in our communications and engagement, and take more leadership in this space. But what does this look like, and how can we start?
Here are three ways you and your project team can consider planning for meaningful communications and engagement:
Make sure the communications and engagement team is represented at the senior levels of your project, and they have a seat at the decision-making table. This extends to embedding processes that listen to and consider community input in that decision making.
Structure the project management or programme so communication and engagement can extract and deliver the right information for each phase of work. For example, when assessing a range of alternative options, make sure you have time allocated to gain feedback from stakeholders.
Make sure the whole team participates in engagement, not just the “comms people”. Understand what it’s like to walk in the shoes of community members. This will undoubtedly ensure people are at the heart of key consideration. You can learn loads in just a 10 minute conversation with a local.
Overall, the Fast-track Bill will change how projects that have a big impact on people are greenlighted, shaking things up from the way this has been done to date. All the more reason why strong communications and engagement will be needed to see it succeed.
With the lens of fast-tracking, it will be critical to deliver on the promise to build what our country needs at pace, and this can only truly be done when we communicate and engage well.
