Page 66 - Australian Defence Mag March 2020

66 FROM THE SOURCE NAOMI ANSTESS
MARCH 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
NAOMI ANSTESS
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER INTRACT AUSTRALIA
Intract Australia Pty Ltd is an Indigenous construction business working mainly in the Northern Territory (NT) and South Australia (SA). Impressively, Intract Australia is turning 10 in 2020. ADM Managing Editor Katherine Ziesing caught up with their COO Naomi Anstess to talk about their work in Defence and the role their Aboriginality plays in the business.
AADM: Can you give us an overview of the Intract business; what’s the split between Defence and civil tasks? ANSTESS: Intract Australia is an Aboriginal construction business. We turn 10 this year in August, and have been around since before the Indigenous Procurement Policy. We work in civil construction, building construction, build- ing maintenance, asbestos remediation and demolition ser- vices right across the country. Our head office is in Darwin in the NT and we primarily work
ANSTESS: We see ourselves as remote and regional special- ists; it makes sense I guess from the birth of the company and the focus on Aboriginal Australia from the beginning. We started our work in very remote Arnhem Land and around the NT and Central Australia, learning those les- sons around the logistics in mobilising and demobilising, cultural issues and particularly in the north, the weather patterns which create lockouts from communities and sig-
nificant supply issues.
We’ve learned the importance
of having the ability to be flexible with procurement and the deliv- ery of works. We’ve come up with unique and innovative ways to get equipment and supplies and people to places and we’ve built a very versatile, robust workforce of people. I think the most important part of any company, and particu- larly at Intract, just like our part- ner McMahon Services, people matter the most and the people that we recruit understand and are competent in the difficult logisti- cal circumstances we work in.
They’re all prepared to be away from their families for periods of time, come in and out, and live in places where there’s very few supplies and services. Some of our guys would sleep in a swag in the early days before we were big enough to be able to worry about work camps and things.
But I guess working in these re- mote locations, like the Cultanas and the Woomeras, we’ve worked out that if you want to deliver qual- ity products you have got to also have the quality people and the
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through what I call the corridor,
from Darwin through to Adelaide
- for the NT/SA corridor, but we 2019 have offices along the east and the
west coast and we’re growing those 2018 slowly and steadily.
At the moment we undertake 2015 approximately70/30 in defence
and civil, and the work that we
do for Defence is in building con- 2014 struction, building maintenance, asbestos and demo, as well as civil 2012 works like roads. We have had a
heavy focus on civil construction
in SA and we undertake a signifi-
cant amount of that there. 2009
Last year was a fairly big year
for us and we completed a couple
of big roads out at Cultana and 2009 Woomera. In the NT we have predominantly worked in build- 2007 ing and building maintenance and asbestos with our partners, Mc-
Mahon Services Australia. But we 2002 do deliver integrated construction 2003 services in both locations.
ADM: In that corridor you work 2002 along, there’s a lot of remote ar-
eas obviously throughout there. 2000 What are some of the challenges
PROFILE
Chief Operating Officer, Intract Australia
National Business and Workforce Development Officer, Intract Australia
Executive Director, Strategic and Shared Services, Batchelor Institute
of Indigenous Tertiary Education
Director of Indigenous Education Policy, Dept of Education NT
Director, National Alliance for Remote Indigenous Schools and Remote Pathways Programs, Dept of Education NT
Chief Minister’s Public Sector Medal for Outstanding and Meritorious Service in the Northern Territory Public Sector
Director, School Enrolment and Attendance, Dept of Education NT
Graduated Bachelor of Teaching and Learning , Middle School Pedagogies
Teacher, NT Schools
Chief Minister’s Award for Excellence in Leadership for Young Territorians, Young Australian of the Year Awards
Graduated Batchelor of Teaching (Preservice)
NAIDOC Young Person of the Year, NT
that you face in that instance and how do you address them?
2000 Member of Inaugural National Indigenous Youth Leadership Group