Public-private partnerships for Queensland regional infrastructure : uncorking the bottlenecks

Australia has an economy which is unique amongst developed countries with its comparatively large export-oriented agricultural, natural resource, energy and transport sectors. Due [to] the dispersal of population and economic activities across Australia's large landmass, as well as distance from trading partners, the responsive, timely and efficient supply of transport infrastructure - road, rail, ports and airports - is critical in underpinning the continued smooth expansion of the economy and global competitiveness of the private sector. With its large endowment of natural resources, the Queensland economy has experienced strong growth over the last two decades. This has been due in part to the strong pro-development policies of successive governments. Though committed to retaining ownership and control of existing infrastructure, in 2001-2002, the Queensland Government adopted a more strategic whole-of-government approach to infrastructure planning, issuing a State Infrastructure Plan and Public-Private Partnership policy including the Smart State Strategy. These joint policies made a clearer linkage between infrastructure and economic growth, retained the sphere of "core" infrastructure for the private sector, but opened up the provision of "non-core" infrastructure to the private sector under four project delivery options.