An interview with our Managing Director

Let's start with things that stand out for you in the past 12 months?

Where do you start? There are so many worthy achievements from throughout the year and it's always hard to just pick out a couple. I am very proud of our work with the national award-winning Regional Road Safety Program which has been rolled out across almost 8,500 kilometres of our regional roads since 2020. These road improvements are recognised by locals as having had a noticeable positive impact on road safety.

We've made great progress this year ensuring the safety of our roads for everyone, however we have seen a significant increase in fatalities since the beginning of the year, which is a reminder to us all that there is still more work ahead to improve road safety.

The face of Main Roads is changing, and I mean that literally. We now have more than 130 development employees from engineering cadets through to apprentices and business trainees. This year, I was pleased to welcome one of our largest ever groups of new development employees to the organisation and I think all of us were very proud to be recognised nationally as one of the top graduate-employers for 2024.

One of the things we at Main Roads, together with our Transport Portfolio partners, remain focused on is the opportunity to deliver on social outcomes that arise from our infrastructure programs. A great example of that has been on the Bunbury Outer Ring Road through the Yaka Dandjoo Program, which literally means working together in Noongar language.

Can you tell us more about the Yaka Dandjoo program and what it delivered?

The program was formed to create meaningful career pathways for unemployed and job-ready participants. The focus was on young people, women, individuals older than 45 years and Aboriginal people. It was an initiative that was derived from a response to the impacts of COVID 19. As we near the end of construction of the Bunbury Outer Ring Road project, the final Yaka Dandjoo graduation and program wrap-up has taken place. Over the life of this program a total of 191 participants graduated across 13 cohorts, and graduates are now ready to enter the industry and embark on new journeys. Around 54% of the graduates were female, around 60% were Aboriginal, 35% were youth and 24% were older than 45. The program has created a benchmark model that we will continue to use and are sharing with others that are interested.

The Commissioner highlighted some significant road projects in his section but how much did Main Roads invest in the road network and local communities this year?

During last financial year a record $4.3 billion was spent across the state as we continue to expand, maintain and operate the state road network. We also achieved record expenditure of $2.2 billion spent directly on capital works. The total value of assets that we manage on behalf of the people of Western Australia has increased by $5 billion and is now sitting at $71.7 billion.

We marked some major milestones on several of our projects including the start of works on the Mandurah Estuary Bridge Duplication Project, the impressive Causeway Pedestrian and Cyclist Bridges Project, completion of the Hedland Road and Rail Safety Improvements program as well as the Tonkin Gap Project. A huge amount of progress has been made on the works along the Mitchell Freeway including extensions to Romeo Road, installing new technology and widening from Hodges to Hepburn Avenue and the works on the extension of Stephenson Avenue.

The biggest road infrastructure project undertaken in the Great Southern region, the Albany Ring Road now known as Menang Drive, has officially opened to traffic. This has been a game changer for contractors and suppliers in the region with the project investing approximately $54 million in local businesses, including $6.4 million with Aboriginal businesses and suppliers. Further on the topic of huge infrastructure projects, we are also on track to see completion of the biggest infrastructure project undertaken in the south west, the Bunbury Outer Ring Road later this year. Both projects aim to ease congestion and provide safer more efficient traffic routes for freight, tourists and locals, and to improve community amenity.

One of Main Roads strategic initiatives is our commitment to increased Aboriginal economic participation and engagement, how is that progressing?

It is going very well and we have been making some good progress against the targets announced by the Deputy Premier in 2021. Last year we spent $210 million through direct and indirect engagement of Aboriginal businesses and have seen Aboriginal people work more than 550,000 hours on our projects. It is important that we maintain the momentum we have gained and we continue to incorporate initiatives into our major construction contracts including mandatory minimum targets for Aboriginal employment, traineeships and business participation, and more incentives and initiatives encouraging development for local people, businesses and communities.

Our Transport Portfolio Aboriginal Engagement Team was awarded this year's IPAA WA Achievement Award for Best Practice in Procurement and were commended for facilitating cultural recognition and embedding best practice in Aboriginal participation. I am really pleased with the approach and commitment from our people and supply partners – creating new opportunities with a range of teams across the state consistently driving change in this space.

As a portfolio we are getting closer to the $700 million target set by the Western Australian Government for Aboriginal engagement and participation, and we will not be taking our foot off the accelerator on that initiative either. We will continue to work with industry to do what we can to support employment and develop business capability for Aboriginal people.

Last financial year you celebrated the first of the regions to successfully transition to in-house maintenance delivery, have the successes carried on into 2024?

Over the past two years there has been a tremendous amount of work to return maintenance and some capital works to Main Roads. Last financial year, we welcomed almost 100 employees into the organisation and this year we have welcomed a further 300 employees back into the Goldfields Esperance, Metropolitan, Pilbara, South West and Great Southern Regions, along with the Metropolitan Bridge Maintenance Crew and Incident Response Service.

The initiative allows us to diversify our staff's skills and knowledge while providing stable local regional employment and encouraging families to live in the regions improving local spending and community benefits.

One of the greatest opportunities we recognised from this initiative is the ability to support Aboriginal participation and engagement. We have also made efforts to directly engage local Aboriginal businesses with more than 65 being a part of our Panel Contracts for In-House Maintenance. I am proud of the progress we have made on this front so far, but the job isn't finished yet with the transition of the Kimberly region set for the end of this year.

What culture are you looking to build and what are you doing to achieve that?

I am committed to increasing representation of diverse groups within our workforce and providing a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace culture, reflecting the community we serve. I am pleased with progress we've made and our continuing pursuit to create a workplace prioritising respect, inclusivity and safety for all people.

Last year we saw the formation of eight new diversity reference groups and a Diversity Council. I'd like to acknowledge the hard work they've been doing to develop our new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) action plan - working collaboratively to gather knowledge and indentify actions and initiatives to progress this work. In late 2023 we launched our Road to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion framework. This is a starting point, built on a very inclusive process based on strong engagement with our workforce. A key part of the approach that we have taken is to acknowledge that we don't necessarily have all the answers or know all the right questions to ask, but that's what the framework is about. This is not a project that's going to end in six months it's a framework for carrying us forward.

Traditionally the construction and engineering industry is a male-dominated environment. Are you addressing that?

Yes, absolutely I am. Equal representation is known to improve the culture of workplaces and quality of decision-making which ultimately helps us meet the needs of all the communities we serve. From a business perspective, like many in our industry, we are facing capacity challenges resulting in large workforce gaps.

We recognise that across the transport sector there is low participation of women and therefore a largely untapped talent pool. This year I have become a member of CEO's for Gender Equity, where I gain insights into how we can attract and retain more female workers in our industry, and how we can enhance our policies and approaches.

Additionally, through our work with Curtin University and the Girls in Engineering Tomorrow program, we are targeting secondary-level female students across the metro area to offer exposure to engineering activities, mentoring and tutoring to help encourage a career in STEM-related areas.

We are working to understand our gender pay gap and look at what we can do to make improvements, we are seeking to increase the availability of part time work and address and raise awareness around unconscious bias. Often gender inequity in the broader transport sector begins in training settings and continues through into workplaces, with women often confronted by negative societal assumptions on their role and unconscious bias. I am committed to breaking down these stereotypes and ensuring that we provide a workplace that is safe physically and psychosocially, welcoming, and supportive for everyone.

This year's annual report theme is future focused, looking ahead what do you see as priorities for Main Roads in the coming year?

The focus continues on delivery of projects across the state and bedding down and integration of maintenance activities within our operations. Later this year we will see the opening of the Bunbury Outer Ring Road, the new Causeway Pedestrian Bridges and operation of the new Mitchell Freeway Smart technologies, all exciting new projects. I mentioned earlier that one of the outcomes of the delivery of maintenance by in-house resources has been the need to refocus our efforts on workplace safety. We have an ambitious new program being developed and we are putting in place new safety systems focussed on ensuring that we have a safe workplace.

Facilitated by employee focus groups, our strategic direction was reviewed and we have released an updated and refreshed version of our Keeping WA Moving strategy. A new focus on capability recognises not only our people but the development of our industry to be both inclusive and sustainable which is important to all of us.

We've made significant advances on the sustainability front, recognised at the 2023 Infrastructure Sustainability Council Annual Gala Awards. The awards showcase pivotal actions advancing sustainability in the infrastructure sector of Australia and New Zealand. Our Office of Major Transport Infrastructure Delivery, combining teams from Main Roads and the Public Transport Authority, was announced as winner of the Public Sector Industry Impact Award demonstrating our ongoing commitment.

We have also released our Net Zero Roadmap and are committed to doing our part in tackling climate change and making our corporate operations future ready. This roadmap will drive our efforts in achieving emission reduction targets, meet legislative obligations and provide an overall framework to decarbonise our operations and support the Western Australian Government's climate action and emissions reduction goals.

We are continuing to deliver on the projects and initiatives identified in our Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Master Plan and have recently released our co-operative ITS roadmap. These will ensure we can fully embrace the road safety and network efficiency benefits offered by these crucial technologies.

We are continuing to work across the Portfolio on improving the resilience of the State road network and securing longer term east-west supply chain security. Coupled with the work we are doing on promoting a circular economy, net zero and climate change adaptation sustainability will continue to be a focus for us.

As we get closer to our 100 year anniversary it becomes more evident that our success is based around the strength and commitment of our people and that is why I think our new strategic area of focus on capability, along with a renewed focus on our values is so important. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us in the past 12 months and look forward to working with everyone to be even more successful in the year ahead.