While delivering construction work for the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in South Australia, Fulton Hogan was looking to outsource a section of the work to tag identification labels to the cabling on the NBN. This section of the project was extremely labour intensive and required additional resources to get the job done.

Fulton Hogan’s South Australian Construction team saw it as an opportunity to involve the local community by partnering with the Phoenix Society, a social enterprise group that provides employment and services to people with disabilities.

Phoenix is service oriented; quality assured and has the labour force capabilities that give us the option to outsource this important part of the NBN,” explains Lee Revell, General Manager for Construction in SA. “This meant they were the perfect partner for us to work on this project.

“The NBN is a national initiative that will deliver broadband to every Australian. It’s great to be able to engage a local company which represents and supports South Australians with a disability.”

Phoenix Chief Executive, Mr Paul Stevenson, said this was a great project for Phoenix to be working on.

“We are creating the K-marker labels for the identification of the cable sections. This work requires a lot of concentration and is providing a new skill set for some of our people,” he said.

“Our focus is to provide greater economies of scale for businesses seeking to outsource work, even better services and more meaningful employment, support and training for people with a disability.

“Working with Fulton Hogan on the NBN ticks all these boxes and we couldn’t be happier to have this contract,” said Mr Stevenson.