Experts rally to back Bill Shorten’s Infrastructure Australia

Experts have given in-principle support to Bill Shorten’s idea of an independent Infrastructure Australia.

Experts have given in-principle support to Bill Shorten’s idea of an independent Infrastructure Australia although Labor has been warned that under such a scheme the National Broadband Network would likely not have proceeded.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and ­Infrastructure Partnerships Australia backed the Opposition Leader’s pitch for an independent infrastructure body to co-ordinate the infrastructure pipeline.

But Joe Hockey said he didn’t like it. “The thing I’m always wary of is setting up a new independent body ... where you just give them money and they determine where the money goes, because ultimately, as a person elected by the people of Australia, I’m accountable for that,’’ the Treasurer said.

“If you set up a body that has no accountability — none — no shareholders, no elections, no nothing — and they’re spending billions and billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, I instinctively don’t like that.’’

In his budget reply speech, Mr Shorten said an independent ­Infrastructure Australia, whose members would be appointed in consultation with the Coalition, would provide a “circuit breaker for investment and a commitment to put the nation’s interest at the heart of nation-building’’.

Mr Shorten’s plan would give Reserve Bank-style independence to Infrastructure Australia to decide where to build roads, rail, ports, bridges, social housing, smart energy grids, efficient irrigation and digital infrastructure.

Infrastructure Partnerships Australia chief executive Brendan Lyon said Mr Shorten’s plan had a “lot of merit’’ and would allow a way to better link national reforms to state infrastructure funding.

ACCI chief executive Kate Carnell said Infrastructure Australia should have a formal role in project selection.

Griffith University economics professor Tony Makin said it was a good idea to give some independence to the process rather than have products influenced by politics, as was the case in the past. He said the NBN had not been subjected to a cost-benefit analysis.