26 May 2011
The proposed new law establishing Infrastructure NSW, introduced to parliament today, has the potential to make state government planning more meaningful, according to the Urban Taskforce.
The Taskforces chief executive, Aaron Gadiel, said the new law imposes a statutory requirement on the state government to pursue medium and long-term infrastructure planning.
No state government has ever attempted to impose this level of discipline on itself before, Mr Gadiel said.
The OFarrell Government should be congratulated for these early, positive steps.
Under the bill before Parliament, Infrastructure NSW must prepare and submit to the Premier a 20-year state infrastructure strategy. The strategy must assess the current condition of the states infrastructure and the states infrastructure needs for the next 20 years.
According to the bill, the 20-year strategy must identify, on the basis of detailed, objective and quantitative evidence:
¢ current land use plans and population projections;
¢ deficiencies in the States infrastructure; and
¢ the areas in which deficiencies in the States infrastructure network are causing the most serious economic, social or environmental costs.
Mr Gadiel said that this 20 year strategy prepared by Infrastructure NSW was likely to be a better platform for states development than the various regional strategies previously prepared by the Department of Planning.
In the last six years, weve seen a succession of plans that promised infrastructure, but were poorly thought-out, without a serious commitment from government, he said.
The approach outlined in todays bill suggests a far more rigorous approach is about to commence.
Mr Gadiel said the most important document would be the 5-year infrastructure plan.
Thats because medium term projections are more meaningful than pie-in-the-sky long range forecasts, he said.
Governments can also more easily be held to account for infrastructure delivery.
Under the bill, the 5-year plan will identify specific major infrastructure projects to be undertaken as a priority in that period. The plan may include:
¢ the rationale for the selection of the priority projects;
¢ the estimated cost of the priority projects; ¢ the recommended funding and delivery arrangements for the priority projects; and
¢ the estimated timeframe for the delivery of the priority projects.
If the government follows through on this process, there will be a much more systematic infrastructure planning process for the states infrastructure, Mr Gadiel said.
Mr Gadiel said the bill also allows Infrastructure NSW to prepare and submit to the Premier a sectoral state infrastructure strategy statement for any particular sector that the Premier considers significant.
Given the clear problems that parts of NSW have had in coping with urban expansion, well urge the Premier to identify the ˜urban infrastructure necessary to support growth as a ˜significant sector requiring special planning, he said.
We hope the days of aspirational strategies with no real implementation agendas are now behind us.
We also hope that the new strategies from the government will focus on achieving outcomes for the community, rather than imposing new burdens and prohibitions on the private sector.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
