Once a major project goes through detailed design and into delivery, there are a number of common challenges that often contribute to cost or schedule overruns. The first is quality and timeliness of cost and schedule data. Without this, cost and schedule overruns are almost guaranteed. The second is a lack of basic project management capabilities. The reality is that the growing number of major projects across Australia and the world means that demand for qualified individuals with the right skills has outstripped supply. These people are highly sought after around the world. They're geographically mobile. And that not only means that Australia benefits from individuals who bring lessons learned to Australia, but that once a project or contract finishes, these people often leave Australia for overseas projects. A third is learning both from best practices and mistakes. Often lessons are siloed among leaders who carry the scar tissue, and it's a real challenge for their experience to be transferred to those that they work with. A fourth is poor project management or program management. This includes reporting, review processes, simple accountability, and control over contingency. Here, the best intention leaders can fall short of best practice. And lastly, a culture and approach to recovering cost or schedule overruns, cultivating a mentality that it's not acceptable to dip into contingency or ask for more money, but to fight at a granular level to keep the project as close to budget and schedule as possible. Major capital projects are set to continue for some time, and there's enormous value in learning not just from the successes of past projects, but arguably more importantly, the mistakes. We also need to think very, very carefully at the balance of resources directed to the business case phase as opposed to planning for the delivery phase. It's quite clear through the experience of the last decade that we need to devote more resources to ensuring that our delivery program is a lot more robust than what we've observed over the last decade. All stakeholders, government and private, have a shared duty of care to ensure the projects are adequately scoped, assessed and planned.
