Public Accounts and Estimates Committee: budget estimates 2012 13 (parts 1 and 2)
Mr Pallas (Tarneit) — I refer the house to page 5 of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on the 2012-13 budget estimates, part 2, which relates to integrated transport planning and sustainable transport development, as an item without a quality measure, and also to future planning, which is listed on page 120 of the report on the 2012-13 budget estimates, part 1.
Today marks 1701 days since the now Premier promised to deliver an integrated transport plan during the course of the Kororoit by-election.
In Victoria everybody from the village idiot up is talking about infrastructure pipelines, planned, costed and properly prioritised — everybody, that is, except the Baillieu government. Just as goals without plans are simply wishes, a project blurted out by politicians without consideration of costs or consequences is more of a pipedream than a pipeline. In this context planning matters and policy development matters. The government has promised the community it will develop a transport solutions plan and a growing freight on rail plan. Given that these projects have not been mentioned for a while, perhaps it is worthwhile to look at both of those plans, which were touted early on in the term of this government as key transport strategies to steer the development of the state’s freight networks and also to improve the state’s competitive advantages.
The transport solutions plan was a pre-election policy commitment from the Baillieu government.
In its 2010-11 annual report, VicRoads states that it was working with the Department of Transport on the development of the transport solutions plan. In September 2011 the Parliamentary Secretary for Transport cited that the transport solutions plan was one of the government’s key transport strategies. Now it appears that this plan has disappeared from the government’s collective consciousness. The Age reported on 2 September 2011 that the government’s little-known transport solutions plan began development in March, but noted that it was little discussed publicly by the minister. It still has not surfaced and has yet to be mentioned by any government minister.
The growing freight-on-rail plan was cited by the parliamentary secretary again in September 2011. Indeed he cited it, complete with the pictures of what these plans would look like. They are very well produced cover pages. Unfortunately there is no substance behind them, and the people of Victoria continue to wait for coherent policy development from this government.
It is also cited in the government’s submission to Infrastructure Australia on the national land freight strategy.
In answer to a question on notice on 16 August 2011 the minister also noted it, and the government has also announced it expects the preparation of the growing freight-on-rail strategy to be complete by the end of the year, and that would include consideration of the potential for moving more metropolitan freight by rail. That year was 2011.
All this enthusiasm has faded. Neither policy has been mentioned by the government for over a year. They have simply disappeared into thin air. These strategies were focused on freight issues, not the broader transport network, now they are gone and there is nothing to replace them: no vision, no planning and no pipeline. Clearly this is a government that is not serious.
In recent months the Auditor-General and the Ombudsman have harangued the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee about the need for rational planning, selection and prioritising of the state’s infrastructure. You would have to wonder why this government has failed to produce such a strategy. The abandonment of these strategic plans matters for the future of infrastructure, transport and jobs in Victoria. This is not just a bunch of grey-cardiganed policy wonks actually talking to themselves; these are messages that define our priorities to each other — priorities for which the government must be accountable, for in effect it also constitutes the state’s pitch to business for investment dollars. You cannot help but feel that the government’s failure and its inability to enunciate its plan and direction is essentially a clear indication that it is failing in its ability to make clear decisions about its policy and direction for the future.