The procurement of Indigenous social housing in Australia: a project alliance approach

Poor living conditions for indigenous Australians in remote areas of the Northern Territory (NT) is a common problem and challenge in the development of social housing. Various models of project delivery have failed to address issues of overcrowding and insufficient infrastructure that have led to poor health and reduced life expectancy amongst the indigenous population. Delivery models for indigenous social housing and infrastructure is in need of reform to overcome the mounting problems and disadvantage in indigenous communities. A current Government initiative is the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP). This program is using an Alliance approach to deliver the planning, design and construction stages for social housing. Relational contracting methods, such as Project Alliancing, provide value for money, trust, management of team goals, multi-disciplinary expertise and develop innovation in order to deliver the best possible solutions for successful project delivery. Alliance projects are characterised by arrangements that ensure that risk is shared across all stakeholders under a pain/gain-share system to overcome adversarial and inefficient traditional contractual approaches. Using a case study approach, this paper analyses the SIHIP Project Alliance framework and focuses on specific outcomes of the Alliance stakeholders. The SIHIP has delivered sustainable housing projects for indigenous Australians and was particularly successful with regards to community involvement and consultation, developing a regional focus and providing value for money.