Thousands needed for boom!

2 July 2008

AUSTRALIA is no longer the “blank map” described by journalist and historian Charles Bean a century ago.

There are still “committees” all over the country “trying to work out the best way to fill it in” but this year the Federal Government made an unparalleled commitment to prioritising Australia’s infrastructure projects to equip the nation for economic and job growth.

In Queensland alone, about 30,000 skilled workers are needed to meet the infrastructure needs of a population growing by about 70,000 people a year.

The Sunshine State — which is spending $1.6 million every hour building and maintaining the State’s infrastructure — is bursting with unprecedented opportunities to work on bridges, roads, rail and other transport networks, water and electricity grids, hospitals, telecommunications, alumina refineries and mining projects.

Each sector is working to create unmatched training options to skill people for their industry.

New South Wales investments reached $14.5 billion in the 2006-07 financial year with the potential to create 34,588 jobs.

Victoria and South Australia are pushing ahead with major traffic, port and cultural projects requiring thousands of skilled workers.

The Northern Territory and Western Australia are also braced to embark on some of the biggest projects they have ever undertaken.

There is already a shortfall of more than 20,000 professional engineers to meet current infrastructure demands in Australia.

On top of a landmark $40 billion investment marking an unprecedented down-payment in the nation’s future in the latest budget, the Rudd Government has created Infrastructure Australia as a credible arms-length expert body to guide it in its decision making.

The board is a mix of experienced public and private sector professionals with a goal to look beyond shortsighted political gains to deliver Australia’s infrastructure shortfalls in a timely, prioritised way.

Brendan Lyon, from Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA), said Australia was dealing with “an unrivalled economic boom and massive population growth”.

But he emphasised that the nation faced challenges, not a crisis.

“Australia is in the midst of an unprecedented boom in infrastructure and we now have a federal infrastructure in a way we haven’t seen before. We have record infrastructure development by all the States around the country,” he said.

“By its very nature, infrastructure has very long lead times from concept to commission which means the decisions we make now will have effect in the decades to come.

“With the formation of Infrastructure Australia, Australia is well placed to start mapping a way forward to a sensible plan for infrastructure. Through the appointment of Australia’s first Minister for Infrastructure, the government is creating a framework to remove the identification and delivery of infrastructure from political imperatives.

“Australia is suffering growing pains in delivering the infrastructure the economy needs and, just as importantly, the people’s needs, such as transport, housing, water and access to community services.

“We face great challenges increasing efficiency of freight networks ... (to) get our goods from the mine and the farm to our export markets and supermarkets. There are significant challenges to ease congestion in cities around Australia, capital and major population centres. Congestion costs Australia $16 billion per year in lost productivity and we face similar challenges getting goods to market.

“Australia faces great challenges to deliver the social infrastructure in terms of hospitals, schools and justice facilities. That includes projects like Sunshine and Gold coast hospitals, the new Queensland children’s hospital, and a north-south rail corridor to link Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

“By having the formation of Infrastructure Australia at a federal level – which for the first brings together the Commonwealth, all State and local governments and the private sector at the one table – we can start developing a national plan to deliver the national infrastructure that Australia needs to grow.”

Infrastructure Australia will conduct a nation-wide audit to prioritise infrastructure by next March.

Mr Lyon said a unified voice would also enable more efficient use of Australia’s skilled workforce to better manage the skills shortage.

“Like all sectors of the economy, a lack of available skills and a general shortage of people is having some impact,” he said.

“In 2006, a survey of the infrastructure sector found that all respondents, regardless of sector, seniority or job type, identified a shortage of skilled labour as the most critical challenge facing the industry.

“The reason that national leadership is so important in infrastructure is that for the first time we will have a clearly articulated national pipeline of infrastructure projects, meaning the private sector can plan with certainty for the workforce it needs to develop the infrastructure.

“A better articulated career path, more flexible working options that understand (the) need for work-life balance and the delivery of a clearly articulated pipeline of national projects will create a more stable workforce instead of short-term project specific labour.

“The infrastructure sector needs to look at three broad options which are attracting school leavers, graduates and people looking for a career change into the sector; retaining the current workforce; and more efficiently using the workforce we have.”

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