Prime Minister Kevin Rudd addressed the Australian Davos Connection Infrastructure 21 Summit today (7 October 2008) in Brisbane.
Key points:
- Update on the global financial crisis and its impact on the Australian economy and future budget planning.
- Outline of the Government’s three pillar economic strategy:
- Strong budget surplus
- Microeconomic reform
- $76 billion Nation Building Plan
- The Prime Minster said today, “It is time for the Commonwealth, States, Territories and infrastructure companies to roll up our sleeves and get on with the job of nation-building.
- We must undertake institutional reform.
- We must create a stable ‘national infrastructure pipe’ for public and private investment.
- We must change intergovernmental arrangements to make sure there are nationally consistent public-private partnership (PPP) guidelines.
- We must resolve legislative overlays between Federal, State and local Government regulations.
- We must ensure effective principles for third-party access regimes.
- We must encourage private sector investment on the back of a major increase in public investment in the national infrastructure investment.
- We must improve our financing strategy across the infrastructure lifecycle –from design and delivery to maintenance and renewal.”
- The role of Infrastructure Australia to “bring transparency, rigour and integrity to the task of infrastructure prioritisation that was sorely missed over the last decade.”
- The Government’s vision for PPPs –“I am a strong believer in PPPs because they mean the Government can ensure value for money for the taxpayer through a public interest test, while bringing specialist expertise and innovation from the private sector.”
- Developing a PPP package by the end of the year –“The comprehensive PPP package will include a Practitioner’s Guide, Risk Allocation and Standard Commercial Principles, Public Sector Comparator Guidance and Discount Rate Methodology Guidance.”
- Development of an Infrastructure Priority List and the National Prioritisation Methodology that will be used to assess relative need.
