Page 5504 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 9 December 2009
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The most important element of the bill is the requirement to prepare and deliver an infrastructure plan. As stated in the purpose clause, the main objects of this act are to provide a long-term approach for identifying infrastructure priorities, to meet the demands of future population growth in the ACT, to establish a plan for that purpose, to establish a commission and appoint a commissioner to monitor and report on the plan, and to establish an independent board with appropriate expertise to advise on the commission’s functions.
This is a vital, visionary plan that is missing from this government and has been for the entire time they have been in office. The draft bill goes further. It includes the areas that need to be addressed in the plan. They include whole-of-life cycle costs for constructing, maintaining and decommissioning public assets, the scope for technological innovation in building and maintaining infrastructure, environmental sustainability including recycling of materials, waste management and efficient consumption of resources, the supply of labour and training requirements necessary to build and maintain infrastructure, regulatory reform including simplification of government administrative procedures to encourage private investment, availability of funding, including funding from the private sector and the commonwealth, the economic impact of infrastructure, the national capital plan, the territory plan and other ACT government plans.
The areas this body will examine are evident in the broad-reaching, overarching ambit outlined in the legislation. They include health and community services; education and training; roads, car parking and cycle paths; public transport; water supply and sustainability; electricity, gas and alternative energy; communications including broadband; interstate freight and import-export; sporting facilities; cultural and tourism facilities; public places; waste management; waste water management, including stormwater and sewerage; the city centre and town centres identified in the territory plan.
The other important element of the bill is the establishment of an expert commissioner and an independent board to provide the expertise required to make the plan a reality. The commissioner has the following functions: to advise the minister on the preparation of the infrastructure plan; to consult the community about infrastructure priorities; to monitor and report on the progress of the infrastructure plan; to oversee the state of infrastructure in the ACT; to refer appropriate infrastructure projects to the Auditor-General for audit; to report annually to the appropriate Legislative Assembly committee; and to publish data that helps to inform the debate on infrastructure. As you can see, it is a comprehensive strategic look at the territory’s needs.
The Infrastructure Canberra Bill is one part of a suite of solutions to provide precisely that. Presently each ACT government department makes separate bids for infrastructure funding and the Labor cabinet makes arbitrary decisions about which proposals have the strongest merit. Larger departments and agencies sometimes get greater say or influence than lower profile agencies. Under the Liberal infrastructure plan, the ACT government will receive an independent and professional view from an infrastructure commissioner who is not beholden to the agenda of any single department or agency.
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