The Australian Constructors Association (ACA) welcomes new legislation introduced today to give the nation’s infrastructure advisor, Infrastructure Australia, more influence over government decision-making.

ACA CEO Jon Davies said irrespective of the changes, the most important change will be government listening to Infrastructure Australia’s advice—otherwise what is the point of having them.

“The proof will be in the pudding,” said Mr Davies.

“ACA has supported Infrastructure Australia’s reform recommendations but implementation by government has been non-existent.

“Government needs to urgently enact these reforms as the health of the industry is too important to ignore.

“The next critical step is the Federal Government using its buying power to accelerate reforms.”

ACA has developed a way for the Federal Government to expedite reforms through a new ratings initiative called the Future Australian Infrastructure Rating (FAIR).

“FAIR would enable greater sharing of learnings that would significantly help the industry to improve,” said Mr Davies.

“Already there is a provision for state and territory delivery agencies to submit post completion reports to Infrastructure Australia under the National Partnership Agreement, but this rarely occurs.

“FAIR would provide a mechanism for Infrastructure Australia to ensure agencies fulfilled this requirement.

“Under the FAIR initiative, an online database of learnings and innovations from projects would be established where industry and clients alike can identify ways to improve on upcoming projects.

“The sharing of lessons learned is just one benefit of the FAIR initiative—the opportunity to implement reforms that will improve industry productivity, diversity, technology adoption and more are limitless.

“Government is moving in the right direction. It now needs to follow through and act on the advice.”