Freight Rail, Passenger Rail

Tudge to open Infrastructure Summit

Newly re-appointed cities, urban infrastructure and population minister Alan Tudge has been added to next week’s National Infrastructure Summit in Melbourne, joining Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and NSW transport and roads minister Andrew Constance.

Tudge, who last week told a Sydney conference the Coalition was putting congestion-busting infrastructure spending at the top of its population agenda, was on Wednesday added to the AFR’s National Infrastructure Summit agenda.

Tudge will open the two-day event on June 12.

Speaking with the AFR on Tuesday, the minister stressed the importance of Australia maintaining its infrastructure pipeline.

“We’ve got a massive pipeline of $100 billion of infrastructure expenditure and absolutely that supports jobs creation and economic growth,” he said. “This was identified in the Productivity Commission as well a couple of years ago.”

Tudge said the Coalition would continue look to the advice of Infrastructure Australia for its major spending commitments, but he said the Government will not commit to always follow the independent advisor.

“We don’t put any money into any major project unless Infrastructure Australia has assessed it and given it the thumbs up from a business-case perspective,” he said.

“Their priorities will always be influential on government policy but governments will always ultimately make the final decision.”

Infrastructure Australia will also be represented at next week’s Summit, with new CEO Romilly Madew slated to speak.

For the rail sector specifically, the agenda includes names like ARA CEO Danny Broad, Inland Rail CEO Richard Wankmuller, Sydney Metro CEO Jon Lamonte, John Holland CEO Joe Barr and more.

The full agenda and ticket information is available here.

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