Foreword
Chairman’s Foreword It is my pleasure to present the 2020 edition of Future Building, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia’s annual journal of insights from Partnerships, Australia’s most prestigious gathering of infrastructure leaders. This year has been like no other. We have endured a period of immense upheaval after a devasting drought and bushfire season, followed by the acute economic and health impacts of a global pandemic. This period of upheaval has brought many challenges to the way we live and work, but also presents a critical opportunity to rethink our approach to infrastructure. This year, over a two-part program, Partnerships focused on the Reset from COVID-19 and the opportunities to build back better through reform and resilience. The conference explored the vital role of infrastructure investment in the economic recovery, with addresses from the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Catherine King, and Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas. With travel demand patterns having rapidly changed, Transurban CEO Scott Charlton presented his thoughts on the future of urban mobility, while the CEOs of Australia’s and New Zealand’s four biggest airports – Geoff Culbert, Lyell Strambi, Adrian Littlewood, and Gert-Jan de Graaff – explored what’s next for the future of our airports and the return to the skies. Shemara Wikramanayake, Managing Director and CEO of Macquarie Group, shared her perspective on how major preCOVID trends like urbanisation, digitisation, and decarbonisation will be impacted by the crisis, and how we can leverage private capital and expertise to support jobs and accelerate investment. Luke Yeaman, Deputy Secretary of the Federal Treasury’s Macroeconomic Group, provided an update on the economic outlook for Australia, and called on the infrastructure sector to support early planning and skills development to allow investment decisions to be made with speed and confidence. A panel of private-sector investors discussed the outlook for infrastructure investment over the forward horizon and explored the shift in investor preferences towards social infrastructure, distributed energy resources, and digital infrastructure assets alongside the heightened focus on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). David Thodey AO, Chair of the NSW Federal Financial Relations Review, discussed the imperative for governments
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to lock-in reforms to inefficient taxes, including the need to modernise the current road funding system. Sector leaders Marco Assorati, Simon Draper, Nicole Green and Corey Hannett unpacked what is required to reset contracting as we move beyond a turbulent period in construction. Following an address from NSW Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean, a panel comprising Drew Clarke AO, Elizabeth O’Leary, Michel Masson and Ivan Varughese considered Australia’s journey towards decarbonisation across transport, agriculture, and energy. The Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Sir Danny Alexander, outlined the immediate financial support the AIIB and other multilateral development banks are providing to low and middle-income economies in the Asia Pacific region to aid their recovery efforts from the crisis. Respected political journalist David Speers also provided his reflections on the extraordinary events that have unfolded in 2020, and Resilience NSW Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons AFSM shared his experience of managing the 2019–20 bushfire season, providing his views on the cultural shift that is required to engender a resilience mindset. Partnerships is always a great platform for the expression of new and thought-provoking ideas, and this year was no different. I hope the insights shared within this journal provide a fresh perspective as we reset our approach to infrastructure in this new COVID era.
Sir Rod Eddington AO Chairman Infrastructure Partnerships Australia
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