The measure serves as an acknowledgement that institutional investors, such as super funds, are critical to delivering the projects, The Industry Super Network stated.
“Industry super funds have been pioneers in infrastructure investment, and they stand ready, willing and able to talk to government about the best ways to bring projects to market,” ISN chief executive David Whiteley said.
Industry super funds welcomed new opportunities to invest in “critical nation building infrastructure” that can deliver good returns for members and a dividend to the economy, he said.
“The government’s announcement acknowledges that private sector investment is necessary to get many projects off the ground.”
The Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia also supported the infrastructure investment, but urged caution on PPPs.
“The government has indicated that they wish to work with the private sector and the states to deliver the infrastructure projects. That is important, but we caution that public-private partnerships need to be structured in a manner such that risk and benefits are shared equally,” said Institute chief executive Lee White.
“There are many examples of poorly constructed public-private partnerships – we have to learn our lessons from the past. We also cannot see where incentives are created to attract global monies to assist funding our infrastructure needs.”
