I'm pleased this month to welcome Julieanne Alroe as the new Chair of Infrastructure Australia.
Ms Alroe has been a member of the Board since 2015, so I have had the privilege to work closely with her over the last two years and I know that she will be an outstanding leader for our organisation.
In today's Board meeting, Ms Alroe welcomed our three new Board appointments—Deena Shiff, a former senior Telstra executive, Andrew Ethell, a former senior Toll executive, and Dr Peter Wood, a former Evans & Peck executive. They will be joined in January 2018 by Reece Waldock, the former Director-General of the Western Australian Department of Transport.
These new appointments bring a wealth of experience across telecommunications, freight and logistics, state government transport delivery and consulting engineering.
I look forward to working with all of the board members over the coming years.
Refreshing the Infrastructure Priority List
We are currently updating our Infrastructure Priority List (IPL), with the next full edition to be published in February 2018.
As part of this update, we are calling on Australian governments and non-government bodies to identify infrastructure problems and opportunities of national significance.
The 2018 IPL will build on the current list, with new initiatives to reflect emerging infrastructure priorities across Australia, and updates to existing initiatives.
We welcome submissions for all types of infrastructure, including programs of related works and programs for network optimisation.
The submission period will close on 27 October 2017.
Proponents should align their submissions with our recently updated Assessment Framework.
Statement of Intent & Corporate Plan
We have recently published our Statement of Intent, in response to the Statement of Expectations issued by the Minister for Urban Infrastructure, Paul Fletcher MP. Our Statement of Intent outlines:
- The specific priorities Infrastructure Australia will be accountable for delivering in the period 1 July 2017—30 June 2019
- How Infrastructure Australia will continue to establish itself as a trusted collaborator and advisor to governments and industry
- The governance and performance arrangements that will enable Infrastructure Australia to demonstrate that it is efficiently and effectively performing its statutory functions.
We have also recently published our Corporate Plan for 2017–18 to 2020–21.
The Corporate Plan sets out Infrastructure Australia's key priorities and activities, along with the strategic agenda and the directions we will take over the next four years to achieve our purposes.
It also outlines the strategic context that we work within, and outlines how we will position ourselves to ensure that Australia secures the social and economic benefits that infrastructure can provide.
Over the next four years, Infrastructure Australia will publicly advocate for reform on key infrastructure issues including the selection, funding, delivery and operation of infrastructure and how to better plan and utilise Australia's infrastructure networks.
I encourage you to read the Corporate Plan on our website.
Philip Davies
Chief Executive, Infrastructure Australia