Our win on infrastructure integrity
Making infrastructure decisions more transparent and accountable
The Greens and I have been able to secure a number of significant reforms that will see far greater transparency and accountability in government infrastructure decision making.
As Greens spokesperson for infrastructure, I have been in long negotiations with the Labor government to strengthen their ‘Infrastructure Australia Amendment Bill’ and it has now passed the Senate with our amendments adopted.
As we all know, infrastructure decisions have become immensely politicised. Pork barrelling has become commonplace and decisions are often made to invest billions of dollars of public money into projects without proper assessment of their social, environmental and economic benefits.
My amendments will ensure all nationally significant infrastructure projects - anything with a Commonwealth contribution over $250M - will be reviewed by Infrastructure Australia, and those reviews would be tabled in Parliament annually and therefore publicly available.
This means a significant increase in public scrutiny on these infrastructure projects, leading to better government decision making.
Sadly one of my amendments, which I feel is critical, was not adopted by the government – a rule that would exclude senior coal and gas figures from being appointed to Infrastructure Australia. At least four board members of Infrastructure Australia in recent years have been current or recent directors of coal, oil and gas companies. If we want truly independent decision-making around infrastructure, and decisions made with the future of our country in mind (not the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry), we can’t have people with direct ties to coal and gas corporations on government bodies. I’ll continue to fight to keep big corporations, and especially big fossil fuel corporations, out of politics.
Infrastructure decisions shouldn't be influenced by corporations who stand to gain from them.
From key energy infrastructure to new transport projects, big infrastructure decisions have enormous impact on the way our society is shaped. Too often, however, these decisions are made in the interests of big fossil fuel corporations and car manufacturers, and not in the interests of the broader community and the environment. Having a truly independent Infrastructure Australia, the government body that reviews large-scale infrastructure projects, is a necessary component of ensuring crucial infrastructure decisions are carried out in the public interest. Recently the Labor government moved the Infrastructure Australia Amendment (Independent Review) Bill 2023 (based on the outcomes of an independent review into Infrastructure Australia). This Bill unfortunately does little to address the major problem of Infrastructure Australia: it still allows for people who work for fossil fuel companies to have significant roles on the body.
I moved a motion to amend the bill to explicitly ban fossil fuel executives to act as Commissioners of Infrastructure Australia.
You can watch my speech in full:
Corporate bias
In my speech, I highlight a number of individuals who have held, or currently hold, Board roles at Infrastructure Australia who worked for fossil fuel companies. These people all bring an enormous bias and, I believe, an enormous conflict of interest when advising on infrastructure projects to the government. The government should not be advised on key infrastructure projects by people who stand to gain from particular infrastructure being built or, indeed, not being built. They do not have the perspective of delivering infrastructure that benefits everyday people or of delivering infrastructure in the interests of the community.
These Board members have the perspective of the government stepping in to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure meant to facilitate bigger profits for massive coal, oil and gas corporations. They also, in their time in these senior industry roles, establish significant relationships and networks with key people in fossil fuel corporations who will then have a direct mouthpiece through them to the government. With the consolidated three-commissioner structure of this revamped Infrastructure Australia, if one of these roles is occupied, for example, by a director of Santos, that would be giving Santos an incredible influence over government infrastructure decision-making.
Where the Greens stand
The Greens believe that infrastructure projects should focus on people and communities, not corporate profits. The LNP spent 9 years in parliament co-opting projects and funds for their or their donors' gain, which has substantially undermined our ability to respond to the challenges of climate change. We've outlined principles for infrastructure planning that support sustainable development.