Business identifies road & telecommunications as infrastructure priorities

November 2008

The announcement of the $20 billion Building Australia Fund by the Federal Government represents a significant amount of money set aside for major infrastructure projects that will underpin Australia's future economic growth.

Infrastructure Australia was set up to oversee the spending of this fund and has called for submissions on what infrastructure projects are needed. Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland recently made a submission to Infrastructure Australia which argued that adequate and reliable infrastructure is essential to a growing Queensland economy.

Queensland's demand for infrastructure is significantly above the national average for a number of reasons. Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland's submission covered the following:

  1. Responses from Queensland businesses point to the state's road network and telecommunications services as being hot spots in terms of the availability / suitability of these types of infrastructure acting as a constraint on business.  Housing and health infrastructure were also identified as constraining infrastructure. 
  2. The impact of poor infrastructure has a predominantly negative impact on customer relationships and significantly higher business costs.

Further information

For further information or a copy of the submission contact Nick Behrens at nbehrens@cciq.com.au.

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