Infrastructure priorities need change – report
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 2, No. 4
17 March - 14 April 2008 ] By David Scott
Australia’s emerging approach to urban transport and climate change, and a pressing need to modify related infrastructure priorities, are the focus of a new report by University of Melbourne urban transport and public policy expert, Professor Bill Russell.
The report: Who decides infrastructure priorities? Federal funding for urban transport in the time of climate change, documents what Professor Russell describes as a progressive erosion of the public assessment of major infrastructure projects in recent years
“At the end of the Howard era, traditional merit assessment of infrastructure priorities is near invisible, and most public environmental assessment is in retreat.
“The report reveals how this climate of dwindling scrutiny allows government agendas to be strongly influenced,” says Professor Russell.
Produced by the Australasian Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport (GAMUT), based at the University of Melbourne, the report also examines freeway construction as a weapon in the ‘war on inflation’, the implications for the ‘war on climate change’ and who shapes decisions on federal urban transport spending.
“Construction of urban freeways is a major factor in the rapid growth in urban car use since 1970, and freeways built to ‘solve’ freight bottlenecks will mean more passenger car travel,” says Professor Russell.
“As imperatives for action on climate change intensify, there must be stringent and transparent processes for evaluation and public scrutiny of urban freeway projects that may get Commonwealth support.”
The report is available at: www.abp.unimelb.edu.au/research/gamut/deciding-infrastructure-priorities.pdf.
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