Restoring Australia’s productivity growth – panel discussion
Restoring Australia’s productivity growth Key points: • • •
National policy needs to focus on coordinated action on infrastructure, across industry and the tiers of government. Rigorous analysis and thorough planning is the best way to depoliticise infrastructure. Australia must remain ‘pro investment’ – including foreign investment.
Panellists: ► ► ►
Marika Calfas, Chief Executive Officer, NSW Ports Dr Stephanie Fahey, Chief Executive, Austrade Peter Harris AO, Chairman, Productivity Commission
Moderator: ►
Brendan Lyon, Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia
political and regulatory recognition around the importance of ports and freight to the national economy is lacking. Ports and freight are vital to our global competitiveness in terms of exports, and in managing the cost of goods for consumers and businesses. From NSW Ports’ perspective, there are a few core areas that require more attention if we are to continue to cater for the trade needs of New South Wales and Australia over the
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Brendan Lyon (BL): Australia is facing a lot of investment challenges right now. How do you see the current political, infrastructure and wider economic debate?
long term. The first key area is infrastructure. We need to grow
Marika Calfas (MC): I live in a world of ports and freight, which will form the basis of my contribution to the panel. Ports and freight underpin our national economy; however, public,
through better access to and from ports.
futurebuilding
road and rail capacity to ports, and we need to address issues around urban congestion, as well as improving productivity Fundamental to this is the need to optimise utilisation of existing infrastructure, and to grow the capacity of ports. This
