The Senate has been successful in its bid to tighten scrutiny of the Abbott Government’s “asset recycling” program, last night pushing through changes the bill that should improve project selection and accountability, and deliver taxpayers better value for money.
As reported in The Guardian, the Senate has imposed conditions requiring that infrastructure projects worth more than $100 million be assessed by Infrastructure Australia with a published cost-benefit analysis. It has also required that all incentive payments by the Commonwealth to the states require a legislative instrument, effectively meaning the upper house can reject payments which it does not believe deliver taxpayer value.
Labor’s transport spokesman, Anthony Albanese, said the upper house would not be able to “stop states selling a hospital to build a road” but it would be able to prevent an incentive payment being made for such a transaction.
“What it doesn’t allow is an open-slather attitude towards privatisation with no accountability,” he said.
As noted yesterday, implementing checks-and-balances to the Government’s asset recycling program, and increasing transparency, is an excellent move. The Productivity Commission’s new report on the provision of public infrastructure, released earlier this week, contains many examples of where “inadequate project selection… have led to costly outcomes for users and taxpayers”, and raises concern that asset recycling “could act to encourage privatisation in circumstances that are not fully justified and encourage the selection of new projects that do not have demonstrable net benefits”.
Under the Senate’s amendments, the opportunities for infrastructure pork barreling will be reduced, which is a win for taxpayers.
