In an opening address to the University of Wollongong’s SMART Infrastructure Facility’s International Symposium for Next-Generation Infrastructure, Business Council of Australia President Tony Shepherd said the failure to get big and necessary infrastructure projects underway is starting to eat away at Australians’ belief in the nation’s ability to get things done.

His address was titled ‘Cutting through the Infrastructure Impasse: Ways and Means’.

Mr Shepherd explained that the key issue in freeing up private sector investment is the need for Australia to start thinking about infrastructure as a system.

He said that instead of looking for ‘magic pudding projects’ or ‘magic pudding funding’ solutions that are going to solve everything, the focus should be on working out how all the different parts of the system need to work together – from markets, land use, planning, approvals, project prioritisation, funding, financing, and delivery and operation.

Speech to the International Symposium for Next-Generation Infrastructure