National Press Club address - Catherine King - Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government
GHD’s James Mackay, Executive Advisor Risk Strategy and Policy, and Lauren Fraser, Senior Systems Engineer, were honoured to attend the address from the Hon Catherine King, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government on Wednesday 1 March 2023, alongside Alicia Payne; Ambassador Gallardo, Peru’s Ambassador to Australia; Peter Duncan, chair of the Australian Rail Track Corporation; Mike Mrdak, former secretary of the Department of Infrastructure and Caroline Wilkie, CEO of the Australasian Railway Association.
Catherine spoke on “Investing in resilient infrastructure and building communities”, including discussing Sydney Metro rail, Inland Rail, Western Sydney Airport, Fitzroy Crossing Bridge, highspeed rail, road and rail supply chain resilience, the skill shortage, the electric vehicle strategy and net zero.
Jobs and workforce
The Minister highlighted that 8.9% of Australia’s GDP is driven by infrastructure.?From October 2021 to October 2022 over $36.4 Billion was spent across the nation on infrastructure projects.?Some of Australia’s Major Projects such Sydney Metro, the M8 Metro Net and Western Sydney Airport were contributing to 190,000 workers building a better future through public infrastructure projects alone across the nation.
The skills shortage was highlighted with a currently demand for 283,400 workers across the infrastructure sector, alongside a rising costs in construction materials. At a time like this, the Minister highlighted that we need to be strategic and not try to build everything at once, to identify the actual cost of projects and when they can be delivered. The Minister has been working with State and Territory colleagues to refine their work plan to focus on market capacity constraints affecting the construction industry, improving the interoperability of rail systems, decarbonisation of infrastructure and transport, heavy vehicle productivity and road safety.
Resilience
To understand how infrastructure connects us, the Minister spoke on what happens when freight connections fail. She recounted her time at Fitzroy Crossing last week, a community devastated by recent flooding. The Fitzroy Crossing Bridge has failed and for local community, it means that their only connection east along the Great Northern Highway towards Katherine and beyond to eastern Australia has been lost, and for the nation it means that one of our significant freight routes has been cut. It was a powerful reminder of how we need to ensure road and rail networks are sustainable, durable and reliable.
The task of making the entire freight network more resilient will take years of effort and investment. The fact is that in 2023, that Australia is relying on a 1970s single-lane bridge to carry freight across year after year points to significant vulnerabilities, not just in Fitzroy Crossing, but across the freight network. Phase 1 of BITRE’s Road and Rail Supply Chain Resilience Review is publicly available and demonstrates that the critical freight routes that cross Australia are vulnerable. The transcontinental rail line, the Stuart Highway, the Carpentaria Highway, the South Coast Highway in Western Australia and the main Westrail line out of Sydney are all vital transport links and they are all weighted at high risk.
领英推荐
?Infrastructure Projects
The Minister spoke on the fact that Inland Rail is over budget and behind schedule. To get it back on track, the Minister, as one of the shareholding Ministers of the Australian Rail Track Corporation, requested a review of the project, and the government is now finalizing a Government response to the review, with findings of significant concerns about the governance and the delivery of the project.
The government is proposing changes to revitalise Infrastructure Australia as the Commonwealth’s independent adviser on nationally significant infrastructure projects. It was established in 2008 to provide the Commonwealth with advice on developing the infrastructure investment Australia needs for a better future as a rigorous expert independent body to provide advice to the Commonwealth Government about priority infrastructure investments. Catherine noted that over recent years, it has tried to do too many things. Infrastructure Australia will develop a national planning and assessment framework to support national consistency in infrastructure assessment, including the way benefit–cost ratios are calculated and be more active in post–completion stage of infrastructure projects to learn and inform future projects. The Minister noted that reform of governance would likely include setting up independent Infrastructure Commissioners to oversee decisions. The Government is also likely to expand the role of post project review and linking infrastructure decisions directly to the Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) of Cabinet.
Net Zero
Decarbonisation of essential industries was highlighted with the Minister encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles and rolling out charging infrastructure through a National Electric Vehicle Strategy. The government is looking at Euro 6 standards for heavy vehicles and fuel efficiency standards, and an Electric Vehicle Strategy to be launched in coming weeks. The Minister noted that Australia is partnering with global partners to deliver green shipping lanes, while in the air they are working with industry to increase the use of sustainable aviation fuels. A net zero unit has been established in the Minister’s department to identify how the infrastructure portfolio can work across Government and with the transport and construction sectors to help achieve net zero and improve the resilience of transport networks and supply chains in the face of extreme weather events.
To close, the Minister highlighted some of her priorities in her role, particularly the Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics and redevelopment of town centres and civic space. She highlighted that the role of her portfolio is ultimately about making our roads safe, our rail reliable and the places we live great places to live.
During questioning the politicization of infrastructure was discussed at length and how this would need to change as well as the significant shortfall between what funding would likely be available versus the requirements will have for infrastructure expenditure in the future.
Have a look at the recording and transcript here: