To ensure the highest level of oversight and accountability, I will Chair a National Infrastructure Committee of Federal Cabinet.
Members will include the Deputy Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and the relevant departmental Secretaries.
It will provide recommendations to Cabinet on infrastructure projects and policy.
Importantly, the Committee will be charged with driving and assessing the progress of major projects and will act as the direct line of accountability for Commonwealth infrastructure delivery.
Under State and Federal Labor Governments, infrastructure delivery has been mired in bureaucracy, delays, uncertainty and opaque lines of accountability.
Taxpayers are tired of grandiose but unmet commitments from Labor governments. They want governments to get on with building the roads, ports and freight networks our nation needs.
The National Infrastructure Committee will ensure Commonwealth supported infrastructure projects are given the highest level of oversight, coordination and accountability.
Better infrastructure will be the hallmark of the Coalition Government.
The Government has made significant infrastructure commitments across Australia including WestConnex in Sydney, the East West Link in Melbourne, the Brisbane Gateway Motorway, the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing, North-South Road corridor in Adelaide, the Gateway and Swan Valley Bypass in Perth, the Midland Highway in Tasmania, completing the duplication of the Pacific Highway and multi-billion dollar upgrades to the Bruce Highway.
The Government has also introduced legislation to make Infrastructure Australia more effective and independent – changes that are necessary to deliver an effective long-term plan for Australia’s infrastructure needs.
We are working to ensure that the infrastructure of the 21st century that Australia needs is built more quickly.
24 March 2014