DCN May Edition 2019

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ELECTION 2019 Australia votes With the federal election weeks away, Deputy Prime Minister and infrastructure minister Michael McCormack (Nationals) and Labor infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese pitch for the logistics vote AN AGE OF INFRASTRUCTURE MICHAEL MCCORMACK The 2019 budget showed that the Liberals and Nationals in government are the team of strong economic management. We are bringing the budget back into surplus, there are further tax cuts and we have increased our already significant infrastructure investment to $100bn over the next decade. This is what I call the age of infrastructure. This investment includes additional funding for important programs to better connect the regions and improve regional road safety. It is yet another sign of our commitment to regional Australia being stronger than ever. As the leader of The Nationals, I know that when the regions are strong so too is our nation. So much of the wealth and economic opportunity of Australia is in the regions. So that’s why our budget is unashamedly a budget for the bush. Our strong economic management allows us to invest in projects with a regional focus, such as regional freight. By backing country and coastal communities, we have a focus on helping build even more liveable, economically competitive and sustainable regions, and we’re willing to back this focus with dollars. STRATEGIC ROADS For example, we are expanding successful programs such as our Roads of Strategic Importance initiative, taking our investment from $3.5bn to $4.5bn. Funds will be spent on improving access to regional and interstate highways and in doing so connect regions and their businesses to cities, ports, and new market opportunities both locally and internationally. This includes investing $510m toward road upgrades along the Toowoomba to Seymour Corridor. Safe and reliable infrastructure is a critical foundation to any region’s success, and forms the building blocks from which a region can grow its local economy and form connections with other parts of Australia. That’s why every council in the country is getting an additional 25% for its local roads under the Roads to Recovery Program. Infrastructure upgrades such as those made through the Roads of Strategic Importance initiative deliver not only faster transportation for regional business, but also support for industries and communities critical for freight and tourism and local councils will get the support they need to maintain local roads. GETTING HOME SAFELY The Liberal and Nationals’ government is determined to improve the safety of people on our roads. We want to help you get home sooner and safer no matter where Michael McCormack, Deputy Prime Minister and minister for infrastructure and transport you live. So we are investing $2.2bn in our new Local and State Government Road Safety Package. This includes the boost to councils I mentioned and a further $550m for the Black Spot Program to target and upgrade dangerous sections of road. This new investment has also seen a further $275m for both the Bridges Renewal Program and the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program, which will upgrade or replace our bridges, rest areas, increase road capacity, and fund technology trials, all of which improve heavy vehicle safety and productivity. The Liberals and Nationals are also providing $8m of grant funding to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to streamline the approval process for road access by heavy vehicles such as farming and construction machinery. Nils Versemann; Image supplied 8 May 2019 thedcn.com.au
Ian Ackerman FIXING ROADS High-risk areas on our roads – such as narrow stretches, low-capacity bridges, and areas with deteriorating bitumen – damage the efficiency and capacity of our freight network to extend as far as it has the potential to do. Unless governments invest in maintaining and upgrading regional roads, connectivity between the regions will be compromised and everyday individuals and families living in the regions will have that much more trouble getting from A to B. That’s an issue that has long needed addressing – and under our government, it’s being addressed right now, all over Australia. With Australia’s freight task expected to nearly double, we need forward-thinking governments to focus on improving efficiency, particularly throughout regional Australia, to better connect our cities and their populations with the regions and each other. All of this is and will be achieved without increasing taxes. A PLAN IN PLACE We have a plan in place to deliver for Australia’s future, the Liberals and Nationals are doing just that. Through our strong economic management and getting the budget back in the black, we have ensured that Australia can afford to do so. VISION KEY TO EFFICIENT TRANSPORT SYSTEM ANTHONY ALBANESE If you look at the most successful leaders in Australian and world history, there’s a common factor in their success – vision. Vision is about imagining a better future and taking the steps now that are required to achieve it. It’s about taking decisions which establish building blocks for future prosperity, even if they don’t provide an immediate political benefit. This approach will be at the heart of the infrastructure policies the Labor Party will take to the election. Like Bob Hawke and Paul Keating with their economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, a Labor Government would focus on the long game. Governments need to stop making short-term decisions and ensure that decisions lay the foundations for future growth, beginning with basing those decisions upon evidence. In 2008, the former Labor Government established Infrastructure Australia to provide independent, evidence-based advice to the government about infrastructure policy and projects. The organisation was designed to produce a pipeline of properly assessed projects capable of being embraced by both sides of politics on the basis of demonstrated merit. We wanted to break the nexus between the shortterm political cycle and the long-term investment cycle. But upon coming to government, the Coalition immediately cancelled a series of Infrastructure Australia-backed projects aimed at reducing traffic congestion and improving the movement of freight within and between our big cities. The next Labor Government would return to an approach where we fund projects on the basis of their potential to drive economic growth, rather than their political utility. The former Labor Government also worked with Infrastructure Australia to improve transport planning, which led to IA producing Australia’s first-ever National Ports Strategy and the National Land Freight Strategy. This meant that when the current government took office, it had at its disposal a blueprint for a more efficient transport and logistics system. But instead of grabbing the ball and running with it, the Coalition did nothing until 2016, when it began preparing its National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy, due for completion later this year. TIME FOR ACTION The logistics sector does not need more plans. It needs more investment in our roads and rail lines, as well as public transport in cities to reduce traffic congestion and allow for faster movement of road freight. For nearly six years, the Coalition government has overseen a reduction in infrastructure investment. Prior to delivery of the 2019-20 budget, annual Federal infrastructure funding was on a downward trajectory. While this year’s budget finally did include the promise of “new’’ spending, the bulk of the spending is not scheduled to appear until years into the future. Indeed, the Coalition would need to be re-elected twice more before the promised extra investment appeared. For example, of new investment promised for New South Wales, just 4% will flow over the next four years. The budget was a political document designed to get the Coalition re-elected, not a blueprint for a more productive economy. Anthony Albanese, shadow minister for infrastructure, transport, cities and regional development INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT Australia needs to increase infrastructure investment now, not four years from now. And that would be a priority of an incoming Shorten Labor Government, particularly when it comes to rail. We must work to capitalise on rail’s existing advantages by ensuring our rail infrastructure is up to the task. In this area, the former Labor Government got the ball rolling. We invested heavily in separating passenger and freight lines to Sydney’s north and south. We rebuilt one third of the interstate rail network. We kicked off work on Moorebank Intermodal Terminal. We also allocated funding to duplicate the Port Botany Line – another investment cancelled by the incoming Coalition Government, but later revived when they realised their mistake. INLAND RAIL When it comes to Inland Rail, Labor supports this project. However, I remain sceptical about the current government’s financing model. The use of an equity investment in the Australian Rail Track Corporation to fund Inland Rail is based on the Government’s assertion that the project will somehow stack up on a purely commercial basis. This fact was recognised by former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson’s 2015 Inland Rail Implementation Study, which found that the project’s revenues would not cover its capital cost in its first 50 years. Inland Rail is a visionary project. It is critical that we get the planning right. thedcn.com.au May 2019 9
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DCN May Edition 2019

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