‘Invest in resilience’: Inside the federal budget’s road transport funding

Sean Mortell

Published by Owner Driver

Excerpt:

In response, Roads Australia has welcomed the investment, saying continued investment and reform across road and rail will deliver significant community benefits.

“Transport plays a vital role in improving living standards and enabling access to housing,” Roads Australia chief executive Ehssan Veiszadeh says.

“Even in a deeply constrained budgetary environment with significant economic challenges both domestically and abroad, we need to invest in the resilience, safety and productivity of our transport system.

“Investments such as $7.2 billion to upgrade the Bruce Highway in Queensland, an additional $1 billion towards Victoria’s Road Blitz and $1.8 billion for Western Sydney road projects, will have a transformative impact on those communities.”

Veiszadeh reiterates Roads Australia’s calls for nationwide reform to address rigid government procurement processes and design standards, which are hampering the adoption of innovation in the transport sector.

“Australia needs a long-term plan for the future of our transport system, supported by a continued focus on supporting industry innovation and addressing the construction sector’s long-standing productivity challenges,” he says.

“Construction sector productivity is continuing to decline, dropping from 0.3 to -0.8 over the past 12 months. At a time where all government budgets are under considerable pressure, rigid procurement processes, overly onerous and outdated technical standards and poor labour productivity are collectively driving up the costs of project delivery.

“In these challenging economic times, it’s more important than ever that government embrace the opportunity to unlock innovation, deliver better value for our growing communities and support a sustainable infrastructure sector.”

The full article is available to read on Owner Driver, Transport Industry News.