Infrastructure investment, management and funding is looming as one of the key issues of this year’s Australian Federal election. At least for the time being. There would be no disagreement from our Australian members that this is long overdue, and I’m sure that our New Zealand members share the same sentiment for NZ.
It will be up to each of us, as public sector infrastructure industry professionals, to ensure that the more traditional and voter responsive issues of health, education, defence and welfare are not permitted, during the lead-up to the election, to over-take the Government’s current focus of attention on better infrastructure leading to a better Australia.
As the amount of available pre-election political atmosphere gets rapidly soaked up by whatever the hot topics are that eventually emerge as the core election issues, we must do all that we can to ensure that public sector infrastructure remains one of the hot issues for both political parties.
In NZ, IPWEA has worked closely with the National Infrastructure Unit to develop NZ's 30-Year National Infrastructure Plan and IPWEA has been specifically identified as the lead in asset management for the delivery of training and knowledge sharing across the public works sector.
IPWEA Australasia, as the peak body of all Australian State and Territory IPWEAs plus our Special Division of New Zealand, has combined with other peak Australian organisations in the infrastructure sector (led by ALGA) which will be releasing this month a “9 Point Infrastructure Action Plan” calling upon the major political parties to commit to this plan as a key plank of their election platform.
Underpinning this campaign, IPWEA Australasia is launching a number of new initiatives to ensure that the industry is ready to professionally manage any increased infrastructure investment commitments by an incoming Government:
- IPWEA Australasia is launching its inaugural CEO’s National Leadership Series of lunch presentations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth during May/June. With keynote speaker and industry icon Jeff Roorda, accompanied by a panel of experts, this thought leadership series, supported by our principle national partner TechnologyOne, will present CEOs and decision makers with an alternate to the current way of thinking about Infrastructure and challenge you to consider outside-the-box options.
- Following the recent release by the Victorian State Government of their LGV Better Practice Guide on Local Government Asset Management wherein NAMS.PLUS is referenced, we have made an offer to all Victorian Councils who are non-subscribers, of a 50% reduction in their first year’s subscription to NAMS.PLUS. At the specific request of the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning, we have agreed to extend this offer until the end of this month (April). This will help those Councils who are currently not using NAMS.PLUS to migrate to this industry best practice methodology. For the month of April, this offer is now being extended nationally to new NAMS.PLUS subscribers.
- To assist elected councillors (especially those in Queensland following the recent Local Government elections) to gain a fuller understanding of the interaction of infrastructure decisions, we are launching a new half-day training course, “Asset Management Stewardship.” This will help all Councils to make better informed financial and levels of service decisions.
- To guide new asset management officers and all staff needing an update on asset basics, we have just launched our new training course, “Introduction to Asset Management”. This course includes updates to accommodate the new international asset management standard ISO 55000, the eight lifecycle activities, moving towards financial sustainability, managing information and performance improvement.
- Through the leadership of the Local Government Association Tasmania, and with their financial assistance, NAMS.PLUS is currently developing an enhancement for all of the industry with Strategic Asset Management Plans. When completed this will greatly assist Tasmanian Councils comply with their legislative requirement to use SAMPs and will be made available to all NAMS.PLUS subscriber Councils to prepare and update their SAMPs.
There is a significant amount of strategic work to be done if the industry is to keep infrastructure as one of the key election issues. IPWEA Australasia, with members’ assistance, will be actively campaigning to ensure that infrastructure gets its turn to shine.
Australia’s economic recovery and growth is depending on it.
Robert Fuller
CEO, IPWEA Australasia