The Australasian Railway Association says Infrastructure Australia’s recommendation the Commonwealth Government make incentive payments to states and territories who make key infrastructure reforms should be a “top priority”.
ARA boss Danny Broad on Monday welcomed IA’s Making Reform Happen paper, which recommends incentive payments to encourage reforms like road pricing, and the franchising of public transport.
Broad said incentive payments would encourage states and territories to adopt the recommendations of the recent National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy.
“Providing incentives to jurisdictions to deliver on reforms is an important step towards ensuring there is meaningful change at the state and territory level with regard to initiatives outlined in the Strategy,” the ARA boss said.
“This includes a greater focus on integrated land use planning at the jurisdictional level to achieve better planning outcomes for freight and adequate recognition of the social and economic benefits of rail.”
Broad noted the National Freight and Supply Chain Priorities Final Report also recommended linking all new infrastructure funding and agreements, like the National Partnership Agreement on Land Transport Infrastructure, to achieving freight outcomes in planning and decision making at all levels of government.
He said the expert panel’s recommendation, combined with this new Infrastructure Australia report, provide further evidence of widespread industry support for linking additional infrastructure funding to the delivery of reform outcomes.
“The ARA believes the Australian Government should embrace this approach in the National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy as a general principle to drive much needed microeconomic reforms of the transport sector,” Broad concluded.