Visionary Infrastructure Needs Diligent Planning

Australia’s peak planning body is calling on the country’s two major political parties to ensure their big vision
promises for Australia become reality whichever wins government.

The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) wants the political contenders to adopt the PIA 2013 Federal Election
Platform to help transform their big-ticket infrastructure ambitions into realities.

PIA Chief Executive Officer Kirsty Kelly said the notion of nation building has become a feature of the current
election campaign and ambitious contributions to long term planning for Australia need to be more than
electioneering.

“The visionary proposals offered by both sides of politics in the campaign need to be underpinned by proper
planning frameworks,” Ms Kelly said.

“Good governance structures and financing regimes need to be in place to ensure solid planning every step of
the way if value for taxpayer funds is to be assured.

“We welcome the long term thinking that has been demonstrated through the campaign. PIA has always pushed
for the need to be visionary about major infrastructure for Australia but that requires detailed strategic planning.

“Projects of this magnitude have potential to deliver enormous economic, social and environmental benefits to
the community but without depoliticised governance processes they could become long term taxpayer burdens.”

As the September 7 election date draws near Australians have heard of at least three major infrastructure plans:

A $5 billion freight rail plan to better connect the Brisbane to Melbourne, the shifting of Sydney’s Garden Island
Navy base to Brisbane, and a high speed rail system linking the country’s east coast capitals.

The high speed rail proposal was first outlined in a ‘first stage’ report in 2011 by the then Federal Transport
Minister Anthony Albanese.

The initial report outlined the cost of the project at between $61 billion and $108 billion involving more than
1,600 kilometres of new standard-gauge, double-track.

Ms Kelly said realising such a project would mean an overhaul of the Federal Government’s infrastructure
planning systems.

“The proposal could only be workable if the Federal Government took the lead in policies that better aligned
planning strategy and infrastructure investment of the cities involved.

“PIA warmly welcomes bipartisan enthusiasm for any initiative that will better prepare our urban areas for growth
and change.

“We support the Infrastructure Australia approach to prioritising infrastructure investment but we believe the fast
rail proposal would be better delivered was better aligned with National Urban Policy.

“The creation of an Urban Infrastructure Fund would also help to fast-track the delivery of projects that achieve
the aims of the National Urban Policy by leveraging private sector participation in the development of community
infrastructure.

“We urge both parties to adopt PIA’s 2013 Federal Election Platform to help transform their big-ticket
infrastructure ambitions into realities.”

Download the PIA 2013 Election Platform:

PIA_election_platform_-_final_-_30July.pdf
PIA Chief Executive Officer Kirsty Kelly