WA infrastructure priorities revealed

Infrastructure Australia’s 147-project priority list, contains five high-priority initiatives covering water, waste, coastal inundation and road maintenance, with two of those in WA.

The two were regional and rural WA road network safety improvements and Perth water security.

Property Council of Australia Chief Executive Ken Morrison said Australia’s infrastructure task was getting bigger and more complex.  

Other priority WA initiatives included the Bindoon bypass, Great Northern Highway improvements between Broome and Kununurra, Wheatbelt secondary freight network improvements, South Coast Highway improvements between Albany and Esperance, South West Interconnect Systems Transformation, Liquefied Natural Gas research facility and Port Hedland port capacity.

“The Infrastructure Priority List is a huge call to action for our governments to support the city-shaping and nation-building projects that are needed for a growing population, to boost productivity and sustain our standard of living,” Mr Morrison said.

“Governments also need to plan for greater resilience in our infrastructure to respond to the new challenges posed by a changing climate.

“While it is pleasing to see new projects added to the list, there remain a lot of urban rail projects still in project definition stages.

“These projects are absolutely critical to our fast-growing larger cities where most Australians choose to live and to our economic productivity. Governments around the country should accelerate this work.”

Mr Morrison welcomed the new focus areas in the Infrastructure Priority List, including water, waste, coastal inundation and road maintenance as well as the strong focus on building greater resilience to deal with the impacts of a changing climate.

There are now 147 infrastructure proposals on the Priority List, which Infrastructure Australia notes is the largest number since its inception. 37 new proposals have been added to the list this year.

“This is the ‘new normal’ for Australia’s infrastructure challenge, not just a short-term boom,” said Mr Morrison.

“We need to plan for, fund and deliver new infrastructure on a much bigger scale and over a longer time than previously.

“This will require a new mindset from our governments and the community – one which is always focused on constantly planning and building for the future,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Morrison said that as the Infrastructure Priority List continued to grow, only seven projects had ‘graduated’ from the list to project delivery stage.

“We need to see more projects moving into delivery stage if we are going to keep with the demands of a growing nation,” Mr Morrison said.