Viw Magazine

Men's Weekly

.

  • Written by Crystal Legacy, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Melbourne

The privatisation of services in Australian cities has weakened public control of key infrastructure. This is likely to accelerate as governments look to market-led proposals to provide infrastructure.

For nearly three decades, the rationale for privatisation has been competition. Competition was expected to keep costs down, foster innovation and ensure the public interest was preserved.


Read more: Stumbling into the future: living with the legacy of the great infrastructure sell-off


Now, the increasing resort to market-led infrastructure proposals means even the minimal safeguard of “competition” is disappearing. These unsolicited proposals by private firms have not been subject to competitive assessment.

Market-led proposals present a risk for how our cities function. If infrastructure is built in the interests of private actors, the outcomes will favour them, not citizens. Privatising key public assets that are natural monopolies, such as railways, opens the door to rent-seeking.

While allowing governments to conveniently avoid the capital costs appearing on public balance sheets, market-led proposals seem engineered to deliver monopoly rents from users to private interests.

To stop this exploitation, governments need to reassert the public interest in procuring and operating key infrastructure. This includes ensuring new infrastructure is integrated with existing networks and meets the needs of all citizens. Governments must explicitly guard against financial or user-charging arrangements that disguise exploitative rents to private operators.

A lack of transparent government oversight will result in even more public protest and resistance in the planning of cities.


Read more: Sidelining citizens when deciding on transport projects is asking for trouble


Who plans the future city?

Concerns about market-led proposals are important because the planning of Australian cities and regions is no longer the sole domain of government. Often market-led proposals emerge where governments have vacated policy and planning by simply not having a plan.

At the national scale, a consortium of property interests has proposed the CLARA (Consolidated Land and Rail Australia) project to build high-speed rail between Melbourne and Sydney. The scheme would give the consortium the monopoly right to develop land, building new “CLARA” cities along the route.

In the capital cities, private consortia are filling voids in government planning by proposing, planning and building “city-shaping” infrastructure. We see this in Melbourne, where market-led proposals to build an airport rail link and the West Gate Tunnel have appeared in the absence of a metropolitan transport plan.


Read more: Victoria needs a big-picture transport plan that isn't about winners v losers


Although the Victorian government has been considering preferred options for an airport rail line, a private consortium has produced an unsolicited proposal along an alternative route.

Comprising Melbourne Airport, Southern Cross Station, Metro Trains Australia and IFM Investors, AirRail Melbourne’s A$5 billion bid is being assessed under the Victoria government’s market-led proposal guidelines.

If approved, the AirRail model would hand control of a key link in Melbourne’s metropolitan rail network to a private company, allowing monopoly pricing and servicing that puts profit before public interest. The consortium is proposing a fare of up to A$20, thus placing the link outside the zone-based public transport ticketing system. Currently, travel is viewed as a public service available to all passengers at a uniform fare.

In both Sydney and Brisbane, privatised airport rail lines operate on separate fare structures that reflect their private financing.

Lack of transparency is a problem

According to the Victorian guidelines, unsolicited proposals are meant to follow “a transparent and fair process while maintaining the highest level of probity and public accountability”.

But there are plenty of examples of problems wrought by market-led proposals.

For instance, just last week the state auditor-general was highly critical of the A$6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel project, which was approved in 2017. This project has been criticised before for lacking transparency about the financial benefits – more than A$37 billion in additional toll revenue – reaped by its proponent, Transurban.

This lack of transparency raises questions about the impacts market-led proposals have on the integrity and effectiveness of infrastructure planning. How can the public interest be defended if the mechanisms in place to ensure this are compromised?

An earlier auditor-general’s report concluded:

In terms of transparency, government has yet to finalise how it communicates the costs, funding, rationale and expected benefits of committed unsolicited proposals. Current approaches to reporting on infrastructure projects do not adequately convey this information to the community.

The auditor-general’s report on market-led proposals last week also raised doubts about the assessment process for the West Gate Tunnel. The project was nominally “bundled” with the Monash Freeway widening, with the latter gifting its higher benefits to the tunnel project.

Concerns have also been raised at the national level.

In 2016, the chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Rod Simms, warned against a model of privatisation that gives monopolies and oligopolies control over pricing the maintenance of what are really public assets.


Read more: Making sense of the global infrastructure turn


Public interest planning must be restored

We haven’t yet lost all public control of our cities. But if we are not paying attention, the path we are on is a worrying one.

A sure way to avoid further erosion of the public good in infrastructure planning is to abandon the approach of market-led projects. These shadowy, inequitable processes are surely undermining public confidence in the governance of cities, and in government in general.

We urge governments not to further privatise more public, especially monopoly, assets, as proposed in the airport rail bid. Governments must ensure infrastructure is built in the public interest, not shaped by the needs of private capital.

Crystal Legacy has received funding from the Australian Research Council.

Brendan Gleeson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

RMIT University currently receives funding from AHURI, the European Commission and the Department of Environment to support Jago Dodson's research.

John Stone has received funding from State agencies for contract research and from the ARC.

Authors: Crystal Legacy, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Melbourne

Read more http://theconversation.com/market-led-infrastructure-may-sound-good-but-not-if-it-short-changes-the-public-127603

Financial Planning For Couples

Why Every Couple Should Talk About Money And A Will (Before It’s Too Late) When you’re in a new, exciting relationship, it’s easy t...

Navigating Relationships While Living with Depression

Living with depression can feel like carrying an invisible weight—one that not only affects how you experience the world but also how yo...

Choosing the Right Vinyl Flooring Suppliers for Your Home or Business

When it comes to selecting flooring options that combine durability, style, and affordability, vinyl flooring stands out as a top choice. ...

Why Food Manufacturing Cleaning Services Are Essential for Safety and Quality

The complexity of food production environments demands specialised cleaning approaches that go beyond regular janitorial work. This is whe...

The Importance of Choosing the Right Industrial Electrician Melbourne for Your Business

When it comes to powering large-scale operations and complex machinery, commercial electrical services are not enough. Industrial environm...

What to Expect During a Property Settlement After Separation

Separation is a challenging and emotional time, and one of the most complex aspects can be the division of property. However, understandin...

Designing the Ideal Healthcare Environment with a Professional Medical Centre Fitout

When it comes to healthcare spaces, functionality, hygiene, and patient comfort take top priority. An intelligently designed medical centr...

Stay Comfortable Year-Round with Ducted Cooling Melbourne

When the temperature starts to rise, having a reliable and efficient cooling system becomes a priority. With unpredictable weather and sud...

Best Practices for Content Ownership and Tagging Across Departments

Image by kaboompics on Freepik The bigger and more complex content ecosystems grow, the more valuable ownership and tagging become. In ent...

Understanding Public Liability Insurance Australia: What You Need to Know

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik The necessity of public liability insurance in Australia is that it acts as a financial safeguard for busi...

How HID Proximity Cards Improve Workplace Security Without Slowing Down Access

In today’s workplaces, security is non-negotiable, but so is speed. Companies are under pressure to protect their people, property, and ...

Unlock Business Insights Faster with Power BI Tools

In this digital age where data drives the consumer landscape, businesses are shipping huge amounts of data every day. To remain competit...

Why Split System Installation Is a Smart Choice for Home Climate Control

Temperature control is essential for comfort, and when it comes to efficient, versatile cooling and heating, a split system is one of the ...

The Ultimate Guide to Door Replacement: Everything You Need to Know

Image by freepik Sure, swapping out a door is a fairly easy task, but it requires careful consideration of options for materials, designs...

Common Web Development Issues Perth Businesses Face (and How Agencies Fix Them)

Image by freepik Let's be honest, in the bustling heart of Perth's business scene, a website that's not up to scratch is like trying to he...

Life With Clear Aligners: 10 Small Changes That Make a Big Difference

Image by tonodiaz on Freepik Clear aligners have transformed orthodontics, offering a nearly invisible way to straighten teeth without the...

Choosing the Right Hair Loss Treatment for Your Needs

Millions of people experience hair loss globally, and it can be a major cause of emotional discomfort and self-consciousness. Hair loss ca...

Cardboard Display Boxes: An Effective Solution for Retail Presentation

In the competitive world of retail, how products are presented can be just as important as the products themselves. Cardboard display boxe...

Why Hiring a Skilled Shopify Web Developer Can Transform Your Online Store

Shopify has become one of the most popular e-commerce platforms due to its ease of use, powerful features, and scalability. However, creat...

Selling a Home Left 1 in 3 Aussies in Tears, Survey Finds

New research on selling property found that more than 1 in 3 people who sold a property in the past two years admitted to crying at some poi...