If you want another prime example of why the governance surrounding infrastructure provision in Australia is busted and why projects achieve such poor outcomes, look no further than the below from The Australian:
The Coalition is using a taxpayer-funded infrastructure program to bolster its election prospects, with 96 per cent of the road upgrade projects it is supporting located in government electorates.
The funding, totalling $750 million, potentially breaches Australian National Audit Office guidelines that require people deciding grants should not be advised of what electorates they will cover to avoid perceptions of political bias.
The 77 road projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment Program have all been announced by sitting Coalition members as part of their election pitch or, in the case of the two projects in marginal Labor electorates, alongside the Coalition candidates…
Although the Coalition holds only 60 per cent of the seats in the current parliament, its electorates have received 88 per cent of the funding and 96 per cent of the projects.
Labor infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese said the Coalition had drained the Infrastructure Investment Program’s budget, leaving no money available in the next term.
“They’ve spent the entire budget on small projects based on electoral considerations, not productivity considerations,” Mr Albanese said…
This latest example of political pork-barelling of course follows the Productivity Commission’s 2014 report into the provision of public infrastructure, which presented a scathing assessment of the governance, selection and execution processes by Australia’s governments, and recommended that governments build a “credible and efficient governance and institutional framework for project selection”, that includes “properly conducted cost–benefit studies of large projects, and their disclosure to the public”.
Earlier this year, the Grattan Institute also released a report entitled Roads to riches: better transport spending in which author Marion Terrill provided a damning assessment of Australia’s infrastructure selection processes.
And just this week, the head of the Better Infrastructure Initiative at Sydney University, Garry Bowditch, lamented the very poor governance within Australia’s infrastructure provision:
“There’s been very poor governance within the infrastructure regime — that’s been across the board, across all political parties,” he said.
“They’ve seen the role of the infrastructure as very much one that’s stimulating the economy, pursuing pet projects, and having very little accountability for the money they spend”…
“Despite the existence of good bodies such as Infrastructure Australia, much of it is contaminated by short-term political ends”…
The warnings have come thick and fast, and yet all sides of politics continue to spend public public money on projects offering poor pay-offs for short-term political gain.
Sadly, nothing will change as long as politicians are in charge of infrastructure decisions. This is a shame, since well provisioned infrastructure is also key to mitigating the negative impacts from rampant population growth. Now watch on as your living standards slide.
