Last week, QMCA CEO Jon Davies and QMCA Chair Dan Woolcott attended the 2019 Australian Financial Review Infrastructure Summit in Melbourne.
Jon advised that the Key Take Outs for QMCA members were:
Increased industry collaboration is needed to deliver improved project outcomes.
A number of speakers, including Romilly Madew (CEO of Infrastructure Australia), emphasised the importance of increased industry collaboration to deliver improved value from tax payer Dollars spent on infrastructure.
In a panel discussion titled ‘Mega Projects – Mega Problems’ Marco Assorati (Executive Director Asia and Pacific for Salini) compared constructing mega projects to cooking an iconic Australian meat pie with observations on the number of cooks (generally about right), ingredients (imbalanced), recipe (too prescriptive) and understanding of risk (under cooked).
Member Note: QMCA is currently working closely with the Queensland Government and other major Client organisations to identify opportunities for increased industry collaboration.
A Partnership Based Approach is required for Project Risk Management.
Jon took part in a panel discussion focused on ways to improve project risk management, where he noted that risk management was not a zero-sum game. A number of high-profile project failures, such as delays to Sydney Light rail, have led to Clients realising they cannot contract out of reputational risk. This realisation is leading Project Owners such as NSW Government to move to a Partnership Based Approach to risk management in order to achieve improved project outcomes. (This is one of the commitments in the NSW Govt 10 point commitment to the construction sector.)
Member Note: QMCA is currently working closely with the Queensland Government to define how a partnership-based approach to risk management could be implemented on Government projects.
A new wave of Asset Recycling is required to fund new productivity improving infrastructure.
Following on from the Queensland State budget last week, where the government increased borrowing in order to fund new infrastructure projects, the Hon Andrew Constance MP (NSW Minister for Transport and Roads) reflected on the significant number of major infrastructure projects under way in his state and asked the audience to consider “..what Queensland could do if it sold its poles and wires.”
Noting the initial opposition to asset recycling in NSW, Adrian Dwyer (CEO of Infrastructure Partners Australia) questioned whether anyone in Sydney would be willing to give up the newly opened Sydney Metro to regain control of their poles and wires. (The Sydney Metro has seen patronage exceed 1M users in the first few weeks of operation and peak hour travel times on the M2 significantly reduce).
Member Note: QMCA is talking to industry partners about increased advocacy for Asset Recycling in Qld.
In future access to public / private transport could be paid for by a Netflix style subscription model
There was widespread agreement, by a range of summit speakers, that the current excise-based model of funding transport infrastructure was under threat due to the anticipated rise in number of electric vehicles. Whilst both Federal Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure – Alan Tudge and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews were clear to rule out congestion charging as a potential solution, Andrew Constance (NSW Minister for Transport and Roads) suggested an interesting alternative way in which we may in future pay to access our cities.
He raised the idea of a Netflix style subscription model where consumers pay different subscriptions based on their anticipated levels of consumption for both public and private transport options into and out of major cities.
Jon Davies noted “QMCA members can rest assured that the Association is already collaborating with our Clients and other industry partners to address many of the issues raised during the summit and we are hopeful that significant changes are possible that will result in a more sustainable industry and improved Client value.”
QMCA Chair, Dan Woolcott commented on QMCA’s involvement at the summit “QMCA doesn’t shy away from having tough conversations on behalf of our members. As an association, we will continue to ensure that the key issues discussed at the summit are on the agenda in Queensland to ensure that our infrastructure pipeline is sustainably structured and funded so that we can deliver the major works the state needs in partnership with government and the private sector.”
