Does $60bn wishlist show private enterprise is key to funding smart cities?
There is a great round-up in The Weekend Australian of Infrastructure Australia’s $60bn wishlist.
It includes an excellent news story by News Corp stalwart Simon Benson: $60bn infrastructure wishlist to save our cities, a concise Inquirer piece by IA chairman Mark Birrell: Infrastructure developments the key to our future prosperity, and a thought-provoking Inquirer piece by The Australian’s heavy hitter Andrew White: Infrastructure planners driving a corridor to the future.
All of these pieces set out the crucial funding issues that venture capital firm Azcende is working towards alleviating.
Benson makes the point that funding is the key: In a sign of frustration that politics was hampering bipartisan support for projects considered to be in the national economic and social interest, Mr Birrell said it was imperative that government budgets commit funding this year to the projects.
IA supremo Birrell acknowledges there are severe constraints on state and federal budgets:
Funding constraints are the core challenge, because it is widely acknowledged that the combined level of public and private ?expenditure on infrastructure must grow.
Spending by any government will always be impacted by other legitimate demands, particularly health and welfare. It is all the more reason to encourage decision-making on infrastructure that sees funds go to projects that have demonstrated benefits. Across the nation, great infrastructure ideas will be progressed if we adopt a strategic and ambitious approach.
White, meanwhile calls for an apolitical approach to solving the funding question:
Planning for whole new cities the size of Melbourne or Sydney every year is beyond the remit of Infrastructure Australia. Its list comes from state and federal government-identified priorities. But IA does acknowledge the same population growth and sets out to make those big population centres work better.
And Birrell thinks the apolitical approach that (former Treasury head, Ken) Henry calls for already exists in IA.
Azcende is committed to an apolitical approach to infrastructure finding.
We will be holding a series of roundtables in the near future in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne with smart cities experts discussing the critical issues IA has raised, with funding a central focus.
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8 年Great snapshot, thanks Alok.