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Chairman’s foreword | Adrian Kloeden, Chairman Infrastructure Partnerships Australia
Chairman’s foreword
It is my pleasure to present the 2018 edition of Future Building, a journal of proceedings from Australia’s most prestigious gathering of infrastructure leaders, Partnerships.
This year’s programme covered the contemporary issues facing the sector, while also challenging us to keep our eyes firmly on the long-term developments and opportunities.
The respected leaders’ panel comprising Sir Bill English, Dr Kerry Schott AO, Tony Shepherd AO and Alan Stockdale AO considered the need for leadership in restarting microeconomic reform and resolving the challenges in Australia’s energy sector.
Political leaders spoke to the importance of certainty in the pipeline for industry. They also outlined their respective project priorities, and discussed how they are each confronting issues like resources and skills constraints in the sector.
The panel sessions on electric vehicles and road funding, the Cape Town water crisis, social licence, and waste management invited reflection on how the sector needs to be prepared to respond to changing community expectations, as well as emerging technological and environmental challenges.
Confronting these challenges and capitalising on the opportunities that technology and change present will require genuine partnerships between government and business.
Working together, the professional public service, federal and state political leaders, and the wider business sector can play a critical role in driving the national debate on infrastructure reform.
Through national gatherings like Partnerships 2018, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia continues to provide an honest and open forum for this debate and a fertile ground for the development of leading infrastructure policy.
I hope that the proceedings of Partnerships 2018 challenge your thinking and offer new insights.
Yours sincerely
ADRIAN KLOEDEN Chairman Infrastructure Partnerships Australia
A report commissioned by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack in September 2018 focuses on examining how procurement policy and practices can deliver better value for taxpayers and foster the development of expertise and experience in the construction sector.
Speaking at the Infrastructure Partnerships Australia conference in Melbourne, McCormack said that it is important that taxpayers get maximum bang for their buck under the government’s $75-billion, decade-long infrastructure pipeline.
‘As an informed investor, the Australian Government is committed to ensuring that we deliver value for money for the Australian taxpayer,’ McCormack says.
‘Around the country, our investment is focused on improving safety and driving economic growth, creating around 50,000 additional direct and indirect jobs, and we want to maximise that benefit. As our infrastructure programme grows, it becomes even more imperative to ensure that there is nothing in the current Commonwealth and state payment arrangements hampering a competitive market.
‘The community should have confidence in the size of the government’s infrastructure investment and the opportunities it provides across the construction supply chain. We know the benefits that can come from fair and reasonable opportunity for Australian businesses to compete for work.’
Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population Alan Tudge says that the increasing scale and complexity of urban infrastructure projects makes it even more important to get procurement and tendering right.
‘As part of the government’s $5.3-billion commitment to build Western Sydney Airport, it has embarked on a competitive, value-for-money procurement strategy to secure a range of companies to provide design, technical, project management and construction services,’ Tudge says.
‘The tendering for the first stage of the Western Sydney Airport has been broken down into smaller parts to encourage more potential bidders to put their names forward to complete the early earth works, including second- and third-tier providers.’
Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister Andrew Broad says discussions with industry will help the government understand experiences in major procurements, and identify the best ways to support local construction contractors engaging on infrastructure projects funded by the Commonwealth.
‘It is important that we show the leadership, and work with state and territory governments to refine the settings for major infrastructure projects. Doing so will support local content and grow the experience and capability of the Australian construction industry,’ Broad says.
The Australian Government will work with industry to develop a report to take to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Transport and Infrastructure Council later in 2018. A series of workshops with industry will be held over the next month. ♦
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack
