Victorian Construction Royal Commission: Five Actions Organisations Should Take Now 

The Victorian Government’s Royal Commission into the Integrity of Major Public and Civil Infrastructure Construction Projects in Victoria has placed major construction and infrastructure projects under renewed scrutiny. The inquiry will examine serious misconduct connected to public and civil infrastructure projects, including the conduct, management and oversight of government bodies, delivery agencies, construction companies, consortia, subcontractors, labour-hire providers and other project participants.  

For organisations involved in major projects, the immediate priority is to understand whether they could respond quickly and defensibly if asked to provide information. That means knowing where relevant records are held, who controls them, how they can be preserved and what would be required to collect, review and produce them under time pressure. 

Although the Royal Commission is Victorian in scope, the lessons are broader. Legal, corporate and government teams across Australia should use this as a practical prompt to assess their inquiry readiness before a Notice to Produce, subpoena or compulsory request is received. 

What this means for organisations 

The key question is no longer whether major project records may be requested, but whether they can be identified, preserved, collected, reviewed and produced in a controlled way. Organisations that wait until a formal request is received may face pressure around scope, custodians, system access, privilege review, production format and deadlines all at once. 

Readiness does not require collecting everything immediately. It means having enough visibility over systems, decision-makers, data owners and response workflows to act quickly, proportionately and defensibly when required. 

Why information readiness matters 

Major construction and infrastructure projects create large and complex information environments. 

Records may be distributed across: 

• Oracle Aconex project environments 

• Microsoft 365 

• Email and Teams 

• SharePoint sites 

• Network drives 

• Mobile devices 

• Procurement and finance platforms 

• Contractor and consultant systems 

• Archived or closed project repositories 

• Physical records 

Within these systems, potentially relevant information may include contracts, procurement records, drawings, requests for information, variations, project correspondence, workflows, meeting records, approvals, audit histories and communications with third parties. 

The challenge becomes greater when a project has operated for several years, involved multiple delivery partners or experienced significant staff and contractor turnover. Relevant information may still exist, but the people who understand its location, context and significance may no longer be readily available. 

The most effective preparation therefore starts with a clear understanding of the organisation’s information landscape, rather than waiting to begin that work under the pressure of a Notice to Produce. 

1. Establish an inquiry response team 

The first step is to identify who would lead the organisation’s response if a Notice to Produce or other compulsory request arrived. 

The response team may include representatives from: 

• Legal 

• Risk and compliance 

• Information governance 

• Records management 

• Information technology 

• Cybersecurity 

• Procurement 

• Project delivery 

• Communications 

• External legal and eDiscovery specialists 

Roles should be assigned before collection work begins. The organisation should know who will interpret the request, approve preservation actions, liaise with custodians, coordinate technology teams and oversee review and production. 

Government agencies may also need to consider internal briefing, approval and escalation pathways. These requirements should be built into the response plan early, rather than addressed close to a production deadline. 

2. Map the project information landscape 

Organisations should develop an information map showing where project records are stored, who administers each system and how information can be accessed. 

This process should look beyond the organisation’s primary document management platform. Aconex may hold formal project correspondence and controlled documentation, while Teams, email, SharePoint or mobile devices may contain working discussions and supporting records. 

For each potentially relevant system, document: 

• The system owner and administrator 

• The projects held within the system 

• Key information types 

• Relevant date ranges 

• Current and former custodians 

• Retention and deletion settings 

• Available preservation controls 

• Export and collection options 

• External parties with access or control 

• Known gaps in the information record 

This creates a practical foundation for scoping future collections and helps prevent important repositories from being overlooked. 

3. Identify and preserve relevant information 

Preservation should be targeted, documented and implemented as early as reasonably possible. 

Organisations should identify the individuals, teams, projects and systems that may contain relevant information. This may require interviews or questionnaires with project directors, contract administrators, procurement personnel, legal teams and system administrators. 

Preservation measures may include: 

• Issuing legal hold or preservation notices 

• Suspending applicable deletion processes 

• Securing former employee accounts 

• Preserving relevant project environments 

• Protecting mobile and collaboration data 

• Recording the scope and timing of each action 

• Documenting decisions not to preserve particular sources 

It is equally important to maintain a clear record of what was preserved, by whom, when and under whose authority. This supports continuity, accountability and defensibility throughout the matter. 

Organisations should obtain legal advice concerning their specific preservation and production obligations. Technology and eDiscovery specialists can then help implement the required actions in a controlled and technically defensible way. 

Consider privilege, confidentiality and sensitive material early 

Inquiry and production responses may involve legally privileged communications, confidential commercial information, personal information, cabinet-in-confidence material, procurement records, security-sensitive documents or information shared under confidentiality obligations. These categories should be identified early so they can be managed through an appropriate review, redaction and production workflow. 

Early planning also helps organisations avoid over-producing information unnecessarily or delaying production because sensitive material was not considered until the final stages of review. 

4. Assess Aconex collection readiness 

For construction and infrastructure matters, Aconex data may be central to reconstructing project decisions, communications and approvals. 

However, an Aconex collection should not begin with a broad instruction to simply export the project. Before collecting data, organisations should determine: 

• Which projects are potentially relevant 

• Which Aconex modules and record types are in scope 

• The relevant custodians and project participants 

• Whether external organisations control related records 

• The applicable date ranges 

• Whether attachments and related records must be included 

• Which metadata fields need to be retained 

• How relationships between records will be maintained 

• How completeness will be tested 

• How the collected material will be prepared for review 

The available data volume should also be assessed early. High-volume project environments can create significant downstream hosting and review costs if information is collected without clear scoping criteria. 

A defensible collection is not simply a transfer of data. It should preserve the information required to understand each record, document how it was collected and provide a reliable pathway into processing, review and production. 

Why an exclusive Aconex Data Connector matters 

For organisations responding to a Royal Commission, inquiry, investigation or Notice to Produce, Aconex information may need to be collected quickly, accurately and in a way that can be explained and defended. This is where Law In Order’s exclusive Aconex Data Connector capability becomes a critical advantage. 

Unlike a manual export or broad data download, the connector is designed to support the defensible collection of Oracle Aconex project information while preserving the context that matters. This includes project records, metadata, attachments, revisions, transmittals, mail, workflows and related information that may be required to understand the evidence trail. 

This capability can help reduce the risk of incomplete or disorganised collections, limit unnecessary manual handling and support a clearer pathway from Aconex into processing, Early Case Assessment, legal review and production. For high-volume construction and infrastructure matters, this is critical to supporting a timely, proportionate and defensible response. 

When combined with Law In Order’s eDiscovery, review and production services, the Aconex Data Connector gives legal, corporate and government teams a more structured way to collect and prepare project information for scrutiny. It helps organisations move beyond simply extracting data and towards creating a reliable, review-ready evidence set that supports inquiry readiness. 

5. Plan the complete response, not only the collection 

Collection is only one part of responding to an inquiry. 

The organisation should consider the full information lifecycle: 

1. Interpreting the request and confirming scope 

2. Identifying systems, custodians and relevant projects 

3. Preserving potentially relevant information 

4. Collecting data with an auditable process 

5. Processing and normalising the collected material 

6. Applying deduplication and other defensible data-reduction methods 

7. Reviewing for relevance, confidentiality and privilege 

8. Applying redactions where required 

9. Validating the production against the applicable protocol 

10. Delivering the material securely and on time 

Early Case Assessment can help legal teams understand the likely data volume, key custodians, communication patterns, important concepts and potential gaps before a full review begins. 

For large data sets, analytics and AI-assisted workflows may also help prioritise likely relevant material and reduce repetitive review. These tools should operate within a documented workflow with appropriate human oversight, quality control and validation. 

A practical readiness test 

Legal, corporate and government teams should be able to answer the following questions: 

• Can we identify our relevant project systems and system owners? 

• Do we know which historical projects remain accessible? 

• Can we identify current and former custodians quickly? 

• Do we have a documented preservation process? 

• Can we collect Aconex information with its relevant metadata and relationships? 

• Do we have a consistent chain-of-custody process? 

• Can we estimate data volumes before committing to collection and review? 

• Have we documented internal approval and escalation pathways? 

• Can we validate that a collection is complete? 

• Do we have the technology and resources to meet a compressed production timetable? 

If several answers are unclear, a focused readiness exercise can help expose gaps before they become urgent. 

Common pitfalls to avoid 

• Starting collection before the request is properly scoped 

• Assuming one system contains the complete project record 

• Overlooking former employees, contractors or external project participants 

• Relying on manual exports that do not retain metadata, attachments or record relationships 

• Collecting excessive data without considering review cost and proportionality 

• Leaving privilege, confidentiality and redaction decisions until late in the process 

• Failing to document preservation, collection and production decisions 

• Underestimating the time required to validate completeness before production 

A short readiness exercise can help organisations identify these gaps before they affect deadlines, increase review costs or create defensibility concerns. 

To help organisations take the next step, Law In Order has developed two practical guides: one focused on responding to formal Notices to Produce and one focused specifically on managing Oracle Aconex data in investigations, inquiries and compulsory requests. 

How Law In Order can help 

Law In Order supports legal teams, businesses and government agencies with the practical information management requirements associated with Royal Commissions, Commissions of Inquiry, investigations and Notices to Produce. 

Support can be tailored to the organisation’s internal capabilities and may include: 

• Inquiry and Notice to Produce readiness assessments 

• Information and data-source mapping 

• Preservation planning 

• Defensible data collection 

• Aconex project data collection 

• Data processing and Early Case Assessment 

• Secure review environments 

• Analytics and AI-assisted review workflows 

• Managed document review 

• Production preparation and validation 

• Evidence and hearing support 

Our eDiscovery services support the identification, collection, processing, review and production of electronically stored information, including email, databases, multimedia and other complex evidence types.

Government departments and agencies can also explore Law In Order’s dedicated government solutions. 

Preparation should be proportionate, but it should not be postponed 

The announcement of the Victorian construction Royal Commission does not mean every project participant should immediately undertake a full-scale collection. 

It does mean organisations with potentially relevant projects should consider whether they understand their information exposure and whether their existing processes would withstand a time-sensitive request. 

A proportionate first step may be to identify relevant projects, preserve vulnerable sources, confirm system ownership and assess collection readiness. These actions can reduce uncertainty now and provide a stronger foundation if a formal request follows. 

The organisations best placed to respond will be those that have already tested where their information sits, how it can be preserved and how it can move through review and production without losing context or control. 

Do you know what your organisation could produce, how quickly it could be produced and whether the process could be defended? 

That is the practical question legal, corporate and government teams should be asking today.