The Australian Government has endorsed Infrastructure Australia’s 15-year Australian Infrastructure Plan, committing to progressing road market reform and developing a national strategy for freight.

Released in February 2016, the Plan gives 78 recommendations that address existing infrastructure gaps. In its response released November 24, the Government supported 69 of the recommendations and noted six.

Key recommendations from the Plan that the Government has pledged to support include:

• Using government incentive payments to drive infrastructure reform at the state and territory level
• Examining opportunities to streamline the public funding streams for infrastructure, to deliver greater efficiency and reduce overlap
• Increased investment in planning and project development work to bring forward business cases for the projects now listed on the Infrastructure Priority List
• Working to protect transport corridors and precincts for the future
• Exposure of public transport services to contestable supply through franchising to drive better outcomes for users
• Making government funding contingent on agreeing to post-completion reviews of major infrastructure projects
• A greater focus on metropolitan rail in our capital cities by working with state governments to develop urban rail plans for Australia's five major cities
• A commitment to work with state and territory governments on policies to make better use of existing infrastructure.

However, the following recommendations failed to gain Government support:

• The Australian Government should deliver a National Population Policy to identify Australia’s population pathway over the next 50 years and outline the Australian Government’s options to shape that growth
• The Australian Treasury should evaluate the viability of reporting debt under a more transparent structure, at all levels of government, to allow for greater clarity and support increased investment in productive infrastructure
• The Australian Government should work with state and territory governments to establish an independent national body to deliver a National Water Reform Plan and drive market reforms across the metropolitan and regional water sectors.

Infrastructure Australia CEO Philip Davies says he is particularly pleased to see the Government commit to progressing the issues of road market reform and developing a National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy.

“As we outlined in the Plan, it is clear that the current funding model to build and maintain Australian roads is broken—it is inefficient, unsustainable and unfair,” Davies says.

“We advocated for fuel excise and registration fees to be abolished, and road users to only be charged for what they use. We are therefore pleased to see the Government commit to an independently led process on the potential reform options and models for road market reform.

“We will certainly be making further contributions on the benefits of moving to a fairer, user-pays approach for roads.

“We recognise that changing how we pay and invest in roads will not be easy and this is a long-term process; however, a better system could deliver secure, sustainable funding for our roads—and better services for users.”

Davies says a National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy, which was highlighted in the Plan, would help to define nationally significant freight corridors and precincts, identify the network constraints and gaps, and outline a reform and investment pipeline to address these challenges. 

“The Government has also provided a $50 million planning fund for project development work to accelerate planning on major projects to bring forward business cases listed on the Infrastructure Priority List," Davies says. 

“This is consistent with recommendation 9.6 of the Plan about allocating increased funding for project development work for initiatives identified on the Infrastructure Priority List.

Davies says work on business case assessment and adding projects to the Infrastructure Priority List is only just beginning.

“We have assessed 14 business cases this year and have another 18 already under assessment for next year—with yet more to come,” he explains.

 “We will also be continuing to refine our business case assessment framework in collaboration with our state and territory colleagues to ensure that it is fit for purpose, best practice and aligned to national and international guidelines."