Transcript - The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) Asset Management Congress

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I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet – the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people.

The Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, as the Traditional Custodians of Canberra, have an ancestral and ongoing legacy to 'Care for Country'. 

I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging, along with all other First Nations people who are joining us today. 

It is my pleasure to join you here today.

I know how vital your work is to providing and maintaining the infrastructure our communities rely on to live, work, and thrive. 

The work this sector does touches every part of our lives—from the roads we take to work and school, through to things as fundamental as the water we drink and the sanitation systems connecting to our homes.

The Albanese government remains committed to working with local councils to ensure they can continue delivering outstanding services to communities.

And we know that in order to maximise our investments, we need to work vigilantly to improve efficiency, get projects done on time, save money and reduce environmental impact.

Our approach acknowledges that transport infrastructure should not be an end in itself. 

Nor is it merely an enabler to move people and goods efficiently and safely. 

Instead, when properly planned and maintained, our infrastructure projects can unlock a range of significant economic, social and environmental objectives.

This is one of the lessons we can draw from your white paper, where you succinctly outline the challenges facing your members.

Local government’s capability to support and sustain our infrastructure is an outsized burden compared to the size and complexity of many local governments.

While it is the tier of government closest to the community, local governments have limited abilities to raise revenue.

This means we have to carefully plan investments, and target funding where it is needed most.

And at the same time, you face challenges with staffing and training.

I know that this is a sector that is being driven by passionate people who care about the communities.

But we can’t get by on passion alone.

To support the asset management workforce, we need ongoing skills and training development to support newcomers and grow the skillset of veteran workers. 

For a long time, this has a been an area driven by personally directed development, or skilled people from adjacent sectors of engineering and facilities management pitching in. 

This is a great thing to have, but a clearly defined career, training and development pathway is crucial to supporting the asset management profession so you can continue to deliver for our communities.

I commend the work that IPWEA has undertaken in establishing such a pathway, and I encourage your ongoing advocacy for greater coordination and investment.

We supporting this work directly by investing in targeted projects to deliver the information to local governments to enable you to better understand the condition of your assets, such as the Strategic Local Government Asset Assessment Project in Tasmania. 

This initiative assists local government road managers to undertake heavy vehicle assessments of on-road assets, such as bridges and culverts, better understanding our road networks and ensuring better movement of people and freight. 

Those twin challenges of sufficient funding, and skills and training, are two areas on which our government has been focused.

To start with the training piece.

I am proud that government is undertaking work to ensure our nation’s construction and infrastructure sectors have the skilled workforce they need to thrive – that is the very reason why we’ve established Build Skills Australia.

Build Skills Australia is at the forefront of addressing our nation’s critical skills shortage. It will work directly with industry to identify immediate and future workforce needs, and then collaborate with education and training providers to develop world-class qualifications and training programs.

This initiative will empower industry to actively shape the future of the workforce, ensuring that our training system is agile, responsive, and aligned with the evolving needs of the industry.

By investing in the skills of our people, we are investing in the future of our nation.

I also commend those parts of the construction and infrastructure sectors which are working to diverse your workforces.

Skills shortages will always be more acute in sectors which do not diversify to include women and those from culturally diverse backgrounds.

I know that many here are working within organisations which are directly tackling those challenges, and I welcome your efforts in that space. 

There are so many wonderful careers in asset management and infrastructure – and we need to broaden them to as many people as possible.

Now, to turn to the second challenge – funding.

Our government recognises the central place that local government has in delivering and sustaining our local infrastructure, and that as the people at on the front line of so much service delivery you are best placed to know what communities need, and where and when those needs should be met.

To support your work, we have increased the commonwealth funding available to local governments significantly.

Our government is investing record sums in infrastructure investment, with our 10-year pipeline standing at over $120 billion.

Importantly for your sectors, much of that is directed at the work that you do.

We’re investing just under $20 billion of that over the next ten years to targeted sub-programs delivering road infrastructure accessible to local governments.

We have allocated an additional $250 million targeted to improve rural, regional and outer urban roads to the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, bringing the total investment under Phase 4 to $750 million.

We are progressively doubling Roads to Recovery Program funding from $500 million to $1 billion per year, which provides direct funding for the delivery of priority local road repair, construction upgrade and maintenance projects.

We have increased funding to the Black Spot Program, progressively increasing annual funding to $150 million, meaning more money for improving some of the most dangerous sections of our roads.

We consolidated the Bridges Renewal Program and Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program, with the Heavy Vehicle Rest Area initiative continuing to operate under the new Safer Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, with increased annual funding of at least $200 million made available.

We’re overturning the previous government’s 2013 indexation freeze to road maintenance funding. A freeze that saw a real term cut to maintenance funding every year since the election of the Abbott Government.

And not only are we locking in that indexation at 2.5% every year going forward, we’re backdating it to 2013, taking National Land Transport Network Maintenance Program from $350 million to $460 million this year.

And we announced in June of this year that the Australian Government would bring forward almost $2.8 billion in funding from the 2024–25 Financial Assistance Grant program to local government bodies. 

We are investing more than ever in the roads we rely on in our day to day lives, strengthening our commitment to road maintenance with significant increases in road funding sub-programs that will deliver safer and more productive roads nationally, whilst ensuring Local Governments have the long-term stability that committed funding brings, to allow the people in this room to effectively plan for future works and maintenance

When we look at the national picture, I am happy to tell you all that asset management principals lay at the heart of many of the wider reforms we have made. 

The place you can most see this is in our Infrastructure Policy Statement – the first to be released by any Commonwealth government.

This Infrastructure Policy Statement guides the way we invest in transport infrastructure. 

It focuses on nationally significant infrastructure delivery under the priorities of productivity and resilience, liveability, and sustainability. 

This statement positions the Australian Government as not just a source of funding for projects, but an instigator of change and social improvement—through what we choose to invest in.

It encourages states to appropriately scope and plan projects prior to the Commonwealth committing construction funding. 

Ensuring there is a shared understanding of project cost, scope and benefit is fundamental to both levels of government being informed investors.

We have been looking at opportunities to deliver wider social, economic and environmental benefits through our collective infrastructure investment. 

This includes supporting opportunities for Australian industries and businesses, advancing skills development and workforce diversity.

Much of this involves long term plans and strategies.

That need for long term planning is why I’m pleased to report that we have finalised negotiation of the new federation funding agreement schedule for land transport infrastructure projects between the Commonwealth and the states and territories. 

Informed by independent review recommendations, there is now a new agreement to govern the Australian Government’s investment, in partnership with jurisdictions, in nationally significant infrastructure projects. 

This commits the States and Territories to providing 10-Year Plans to the Commonwealth, specifying priority projects seeking federal funding, and how those projects will be sequenced. 

This enables a longer-term, strategic view of possible land transport projects over the whole national network. 

Another outcome of the new approach is that many projects located along strategic national freight routes are now grouped into corridors. 

This approach will allow States and Territories to more flexibly manage project delivery schedules according to their priorities over the long term.

The most recent budget guaranteed almost $34 billion for a range of strategic freight and road safety corridor upgrades in regional Australia, including the Newell, Princes and Bruce Highways. 

The Commonwealth will work in partnership with states and territories to deliver these corridors in a way that maximises the benefit of our shared investment.

A coordinated, strategically driven and pragmatic approach is the common thread across the Government’s actions in this space, because maximising the performance of these assets means better, safer outcomes for all Australians.

Thank you for listening and for the work you do every day. I wish you a productive and educational congress.