The Business Council of Australia has lodged a submission to the Productivity Commission Review of Public Infrastructure.

The submission reiterates that Australia faces a significant challenge to provide the economic infrastructure in the transport, energy, water and communications sectors needed to keep pace with economic and population growth.

With governments limited in their capacity to pay, policy settings should continue to support the trend towards private investment and ownership in infrastructure and promote user-pays models and capital recycling to fund projects.

There is no shortage of private capital, the challenge is to create an environment for private investment in infrastructure, including designing every public infrastructure project for private investment either upfront or over time and promoting a shift to a more market-based approach to infrastructure provision.

As well investing in new infrastructure capacity we must clear regulatory barriers to the efficient use of our existing infrastructure and get better value for money by reducing costs of constructing and operating public infrastructure. 

The BCA submission summarises two reports released earlier in 2013: The Report of the BCA Project Costs Task Force (August 2013) and Infrastructure Funding and Financing (November 2013).

Submission to the Productivity Commission Review of Public Infrastructure