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Good morning, it’s wonderful to join you today.

Before I begin I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land where we meet the Gadigal People.

I pay my respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to any First Nations people who are joining us today.

I would like to also acknowledge Dr Hermione Parsons for today’s event.

The journey our goods take from the farm, factory or port to the shopping aisle or building site is largely invisible to the average consumer.

But in recent years, the underlying fragility of the world’s supply chains has been laid bare.

Whether because of lockdowns or stormfronts, we’ve seen how delays from around the globe can affect our productivity as a nation.

Now, more than ever, we need supply chains that are resilient and able to withstand disruption.

I don’t need to tell anyone here that supply chains are essential to our economy.

Today, I want to touch on the contribution this sector can make in increasing productivity across the broader economy.

But today is also an opportunity for me to lay out the challenges, as I see them, and to step you through the work the government has underway to address them.

In a nation where distances are measured in thousands of kilometres, the ability to move freight efficiently is vital.

The freight and logistics sector alone accounts for 8.6% of national GDP.

In 2020, on road, rail, air and sea, around 756 billion tonne-kilometres were transported across Australia.

That’s a huge figure, and it’s set to grow to around 964 billion tonne-kilometres by 2050.

If we are to support this surging demand, then it is clear: we need to protect and grow our capacity to move goods more efficiently, locally and globally.

And I would like to thank the ALC for your work building safe, efficient and sustainable supply chains.

You and your members know the barriers faced and what potential solutions might look like.

Your insights and advocacy are vital.

As I said, in recent years, our supply chains have seen a level of disruption not previously experienced.

At the same time, we are grappling to maintain a skilled, portable and adaptable workforce.

Digital technology and increased automation are impacting the way we work.

And as we decarbonise our economy, we have to plan how to maintain our supply chains while transitioning to a clean-energy future.

To navigate these challenges, it will take government, industry and unions working together.

And that’s why events like today are so important.

Ahead of the Economic Reform Roundtable this week, I sat down with representatives from across the sector to understand how we can support the Government's productivity agenda.

What came through clearly in the discussion was that a genuine network approach is needed.

While there is significant work underway across all transport modes, these efforts remain fragmented and require better coordination to maximise productivity gains.

Freight doesn't stop at modal boundaries - a container that arrives at a port needs seamless connections through road and rail networks to reach its final destination.

Currently, freight operators face different rules, permits and processes as goods move between states or transfer between transport modes.

This creates delays, increases costs and reduces competitiveness.

The message was clear - reducing this regulatory burden and creating consistent national standards would unlock significant productivity improvements across the entire supply chain.

The discussion also reinforced that Australia's freight task is growing rapidly, with volumes forecast to increase by 26 per cent between 2020 and 2050.

Our transport networks are already under pressure from population growth and increasing freight demands.

This is particularly felt in our regions and major population centres.

This makes the need for coordinated, systems-level planning even more urgent.

Participants highlighted specific areas where a network approach could deliver immediate benefits:

• better integration between rail and port operations;
• coordinated planning for freight precincts and intermodal terminals; and
• ensuring our digital systems can communicate across different transport modes.

They emphasised that productivity gains come not just from individual infrastructure investments, but from how well these investments work together as an integrated system.

I want to thank all the industry representatives who contributed their time and expertise to this important discussion.

Your insights are helping shape our approach to building a more productive and efficient national freight network that supports Australia's economic growth and competitiveness.

Many of these same themes came through the recent review of the Freight and Supply Chain Strategy.

This review was initiated in 2023 because Australia’s freight and supply chains look very different to the way they did in 2019.

Since 2019, our supply chains have experienced unprecedented and compounding disruptions including a global pandemic, extreme weather events and skills shortages.

The review was an opportunity to take stock of what has changed and what has been achieved. And to develop a Strategy that is more aligned to current challenges.

And so, I am please today to be releasing the refreshed National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy.

This Strategy has been developed in close collaboration with state and territory governments and industry.

We know it is a joint effort to tackle the structural challenges that can stifle productivity.

Together we can better support innovation and investment, with the skilled workforce to match.

An integrated network approach is at the heart of this Strategy.

The Strategy outlines four priority areas: productivity, resilience, decarbonisation and data.

It is underpinned by a new National Action Plan and we will refresh the Freight Industry Reference Panel.

Together this will provide a co-ordinated approach to delivering on strategic freight priorities for governments and industry.

Many of the opportunities identified in the 2022 Road and Rail Supply Chain Resilience Review have been built into the Strategy.

This includes developing national guidelines for how to respond to disruptions caused by extreme events.

We know extreme weather events, with increased frequency and ferocity, are here to stay, so it’s important to have a system equipped to respond.

These events are chaotic by nature, but in having a nationally consistent, measured and controlled approach we can lessen that impact, and this is what the Strategy provides.

A near term priority under the Action Plan is to model the current and future freight network.

We know that with increased demand will come increased stress.

By modelling the network as a whole system, we can better understand where it works, where it doesn’t and how it will need to look to support future growth.

This will allow us to really target where investments are needed the most.

We are making real investments to shore-up the resilience on key freight routes across Australia.

We’re investing $7.2 billion to lift the safety of the Bruce Highway and $376 million to raise it over the Goorganga Floodplain.

This will to reduce the frequency and severity of road closures when those heavy rain events hit.

And this kind of work is being replicated all over the country.

We’ve progressively doubled the Roads to Recovery Program to $1 billion so councils have the funding they need to maintain local roads.

We’ve partnered with the South Australian Government to fund the $15.4 billion North-South (Torrens to Darlington) project, which will make travel across Adelaide faster and safer, as drivers bypass 21 sets of traffic lights.

We’ve invested $525 million for the High Productivity Vehicle Network in regional South Australia, which will allow freight vehicles to bypass Adelaide, reducing vehicle emissions, increasing freight efficiency and improving safety for all road users.

We’ve invested nearly $23 billion in Victoria over the next 10 years, to deliver key projects including $1 billion of upgrades to the Western Freeway, and North East Link.

Our $19 billion investment in Western Sydney positions it to meet the nation’s growing freight ask: connecting the new cargo precinct at Western Sydney International with Moorebank Intermodal and the national freight network.

We’ve invested $1.8 billion to extend the M1 Pacific Motorway to Raymond Terrace to deliver the Pacific Motorway’s ‘missing link’ by constructing a 15-kilometre extension of the motorway.

Another $1.1 billion has been set aside to progressively upgrade and seal the Tanami Road across the NT and WA, again improving safety, reliability and flood immunity along that vital route.

And we’ve invested another $376.8 million towards a number of upgrades to the Great Northern Highway to improve safety, and improve freight efficiency and improved floodways to keep the roads open.

Eight separate projects are going to improve road safety and freight efficiency through reduced congestion and travel times, while also improving resilience to extreme weather events.

These investments will mean freight routes are strengthened and resilient against disruption.

A productive, efficient rail sector plays a central role in keeping freight moving.

We have made significant investments in our rail network, including the $1.1 billion ARTC Network Investment Program to deliver critical upgrades to enhance network resilience and recovery following severe weather events, and delivering the Inland Rail to Parkes by 2027.

Driving interoperability across Australia's rail systems is critical to reduce costs and increase productivity.

As we know, Australia’s rail system is managed by 18 different network managers which has led to inconsistencies across states.

The National Rail Action Plan aims to work across industry and governments to enable seamless freight movement between networks, reducing operational complexity, and improving safety and efficiency.

Last week, Infrastructure and Transport Ministers met and agreed that European Train Control Systems for rail signalling and train control represent the future technology solution to help integrate Australian rail networks.

This will make it easier for operators to access different networks.

It will also reduce the number of different networks they will need to train drivers for, reducing cost of rail services.

Ministers also agreed to reforms to standards governance in the rail sector.

This will see a strengthened Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board (RISSB) expand its role as the independent, industry-led, standards setting body for the sector.

The Board will take direction from industry, the National Transport Commission and governments when developing new and amended standards.

We’re also committed to removing barriers that prevents our supply chains from being as efficient as they could be.

Bottlenecks and intermodal access issues can undermine the efficiency of the national freight network.

In Victoria, we have committed $1.62 billion for the development of the Beveridge Intermodal Freight Terminal, to create a freight and logistics hub on the Melbourne-Albury-Sydney rail corridor.

A further $900 million has been committed for the Camerons Lane Interchange project to ensure there is direct connection from the Hume Freeway to the Beveridge Intermodal Freight Terminal.

When complete, the terminal will handle up to 1,800-metre double-stacked interstate freight trains.

This will deliver improved freight services across Melbourne and the rest of the nation.

The Moorebank Intermodal Terminal Precinct is transforming the way container freight moves through Port Botany.

This precinct will take up to 3,000 heavy truck movements off Sydney roads each day, with freight containers travelling via rail between Port Botany and the precinct and beyond.

One issue that cuts across every part of our supply chain is the drive to shift the Australian economy to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The world is undergoing one of the most rapid transitions since the industrial revolution.

It will touch every aspect of economy, which of course includes transport.

In 2023 our transport sector accounted for 21% of our national emissions.

So, it is clear, net zero emissions, as a nation, cannot be achieved without bringing our transport sector on the journey.

I know this is a concern that occupies your thinking and informs your planning.

And we will work together to achieve this goal.

Later this year, the government will release our Net Zero Plan to guide Australia through this transition.

To help get us there, we will have six sectoral reduction plans, each focused on a different aspect of the economy – including one for the transport sector.

It will cover all modes – road, rail, sea and air – and it will lay out how initiatives and investments into low-carbon fuels, freight and supply chains, and system-wide efficiencies can be marshalled to help achieve our target.

Now, we aren’t being prescriptive in these plans – we know different sectors will decarbonise at different rates.

The plans recognise the nuances of each sector and provide more granular analysis and consideration of sector-specific issues and opportunities to reach net zero by 2050.

This plan is ambitious, but by the same token it isn’t pie-in-sky either.

It’s based on actions we can take today, and is informed by independent expert advice for the Climate Change Authority alongside input from state and territory governments, business, experts, industry, unions and the broader community.

These changes will impact everyone, so we wanted as many voices to contribute, because as a nation we will all need to pull together.

Working alone, no government can fulfil this ambition or provide every solution.

But what we can do is provide leadership, set the tone, and create a legislative and regulatory environment that supports this transition.

And for you and your members, what these sectoral plans provide is the long-term policy certainty to help you drive the investments and innovations that will make this ambition a reality.

I believe the transition to net zero will drive growth in this sector.

There is absolutely no question that our supply chains underpin the economic prosperity of the country, and today, I've only touched on just a fraction of the initiatives and programs that the government's undertaking to secure the sector's future and emerging challenges and to guard against uncertainty. 

I know, once that's finished today, there'll be a lot of work from there, to then see how we can unpick some of the challenges that have been put forward, particularly in this area.

The way we transport freight across this country and outside is transforming. There is a huge amount of work to do, and I'm very grateful of the work of the Australian Logistics Council in assisting us with that.

I want to wish you all the very best in your deliberations today, and thank you very much for having me here this morning. 

Thank you.