The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese,  has released the National Land Freight Strategy, a long-term plan for an integrated and multimodal transport system to move goods into and out of major ports and around the country quickly, reliably and at the lowest cost.

 

The strategy was developed by Infrastructure Australia with input from the National Transport Commission, industry, and state and territory authorities. Mr Albanese said it will now be up to the nation’s Infrastructure and Transport Ministers to work together to develop an action plan for turning the Strategy’s vision into a reality.

 

“Our freight and logistics network is the lifeblood of the Australian economy.  But at present it is struggling to cope with the existing demands being placed on it, let alone the doubling in freight volumes expected between now and 2030.

 

“Release of the Strategy gives us a unique opportunity to fix the regulatory and infrastructure failures which have to some extent held our miners, manufacturers and farmers back and cost the Australian economy tens of billions of dollars in lost export earnings.

 

“Quite simply our aim is to build and maintain a modern, well-planned, efficient and safe freight and logistics network that supports rather than hinders Australia’s future economic development,” Mr Albanese said.

 

Key principles of the Strategy are:

 

  • One national, integrated network: Replacing fragmented, ad hoc decision-making with a proper, long term planning approach that identifies the existing and yet-to-be built roads, rail lines, intermodals, ports and airports which together form a workable, truly national freight network.This process would endeavour to protect current and future transport corridors and other strategic pieces of land from urban encroachment.
  •  Better use of existing infrastructure: Over the long term it will be far smarter and cheaper to get the most out of existing infrastructure than to always build anew. In practice this could mean fitting new technology to improve traffic flows along major motorways, using higher productivity vehicles, creating dedicated freight routes and separating passenger trains from freight trains.
  • Fairer, more sustainable financing arrangements: While in recent years there’s been a surge in spending on the nation’s roads (up 50 per cent), railways (up 118 per cent) and ports (up 305 per cent), building and maintaining a network fit for purpose requires mechanisms for ensuring the right investment occurs in the right place at the right time.

 

Mr Albanese said that together with the National Ports Strategy—which all the State and Territory Governments have now signed up to—the National Land Freight Strategy provides the roadmap Australia  needs  to lift productivity and stay internationally competitive.

 

The Strategy is available at  www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au.