Michael Deegan was the speaker at a recent Luncheon arranged jointly by the Western Australia Section of CILTA together with PATREC . The event was sponsored by Corrs Chambers Westgarth (Lawyers) and Deloitte.

The event was held on Thursday 26th November at the Sheraton Perth Hotel. It attracted attendance of about 150 – indicative of the strong interest in the work of Infrastructure Australia by those from the political, public, private and research sectors. Guests included: The Right Honourable The Lord Mayor of Perth, Lisa Scaffidi; the Honourable Brendon Grylls, MLA, Minister for Regional Development, Lands, Parliamentary Leader of the National Party (WA), Member for Central Wheatbelt; and the Honourable Ken Travers, MLC, Shadow Minister for Transport, Sport and Recreation, Electoral Affairs, Member for North Metropolitan Region.

Michael Deegan is Australia’s first ever National Infrastructure Coordinator and as such is the CEO of Infrastructure Australia. He is the immediate past Chairman of Australia’s National Transport Commission.

In his presentation Michael identified that Infrastructure Australia was established early in 2008 and for that first year of operation it adopted a ‘bottom-up’ / ‘submission-led’ approach. That is, an open invitation was given for infrastructure investment proposals. This resulted in about 1,000 proposals with a total estimated cost of several hundred billion dollars – well beyond that which was affordable. It also served to identify major weaknesses in the whole approach to identifying infrastructure investments needs that served the national interest.

Two Reports (December 2008 and May 2009) were prepared by Infrastructure Australia with respect to that first ever cycle. In addition to culling the proposals down to thirty or so that were recommended for Federal funding, the Reports also identified several key themes and a program of work that would promote a better result in the future. The work program includes development of a National Ports Strategy, National Freight Strategy and the like.

Notwithstanding that the program of work is largely still underway, Infrastructure Australia embarked on a second cycle in 2009. However, the approach adopted contrasted to that of 2008 in that proposals were invited only from proponents that had the wherewithal to deliver – that is, States and Territories together with major industry players. Also, a ‘top-down’ strategic approach was adopted – using the key themes identified from the previous year as a framework to guide proponents.

The due date for the 2009 cycle was the end of October. The rigour of evaluation applied to proposals in 2008 is being carried through to those received this year. Initial emphasis is given to the ‘strategic merit’ (alignment with the key themes) of the particular proposal then to analysis of its benefits and costs .

However, Michael gave little away about the proposals received in the current cycle – neither numbers nor indication of the calibre of the proposals. He did though advise that the Infrastructure Australia Council (chaired by Sir Rod Eddington) would be meeting in Perth the following day. Undoubtedly the recently received proposals would be amongst the key items of business.