The Great Australian Fragmentation is the nation’s first biggest infrastructure problem. The second is who is going to pay for it. Leon Gettler discusses these issues with the captain steering Australia’s historic infrastructure reforms, Sir Rod Eddington.
The oracle of Australian infrastructure
Each of Australia’s three tiers of government are responsible for building and maintaining the nation’s infrastructure from local roads, hospitals, schools, public transport, aviation, ports and telecommunications. This has created a range of federal, state and local bodies in charge of different elements of infrastructure, from freight to roads. There is little coordination; the system is fragmented. For Australia, the challenge is not just about building new rail lines, roads, and ports, and creating a faster and more efficient broadband network, but about ending the fragmentation and creating some policy coordination. Sir Rod Eddington agrees that fragmentation is one of the biggest hurdles. It’s there, he says, not just in infrastructure but in a range of other areas. Part of the problem reflects Australian history and a national constitution framed 110 years ago. “The challenge of the national agenda is not just a frustration in infrastructure,” Sir Rod says. “You hear echoes of it in education and in health. It is not something that is limited to infrastructure. “Infrastructure is one of those topics where naturally parts of it fall to federal government, parts of it fall to the states and parts of it fall to local governments. It’s about the way in which our constitution is constructed. “Education and health, for instance, are currently matters for state governments, and on the transport side, rail infrastructure is a matter for state entities. Shipping and aviation are federal matters. Telecommunications is a federal matter. “The reality is that parts of the infrastructure jigsaw that were put in place before Federation were and are still organised along state lines. The things that came to pass since Federation – aviation and telecommunications for example – are all organised nationally. “In a sense, that is one of the things Australia is trying to do, get a national perspective on these sorts of things. EDITION 1
futurebuilding
15
