Hard conditions - soft outcomes: innovation strategies in procurement of remote indigenous housing

The procurement of housing for remote Indigenous communities involves many factors that challenge the effectiveness of traditional building contracts. In addition to the logistical hurdles of remote construction, including the relatively high labour, transportation, and material costs, many government-sponsored remote building programs also incorporate a range of 'non-housing' outcomes. These might include; extensive community consultation and participation, targets for local Indigenous employment or training, or the inclusion of locally owned businesses in the construction process. Risk management of projects of this nature is complicated as many of the 'non-housing' outcomes are ambiguously defined, and can be difficult, in practice, to quantify. In project management terms, house building programs in remote Indigenous communities are characterised as 'soft' project types, and require appropriate management and contractual practices to be employed. This paper examines the approaches currently being employed in the Northern Territory and Western Australia as part of the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing (NPARIH), and a separate, small scale building program conducted by Indigenous Business Australia (IBA) in the Northern Territory. The paper proposes a criteria guide for Indigenous procurement based on an analysis of the degree of 'hard' and 'soft' dimensions of the project. Three contemporary case studies are examined, involving Alliancing (NT), Early Contractor Involvement (WA), and Design and Construct (NT-IBA) procurement methodologies. The effectiveness in achieving both 'housing' and 'non-housing' outcomes is discussed and potential areas of difficulties and opportunities identified.