Page 2173 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 22 June 2010
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The infrastructure plan also addresses COAG’s recent work on capital city strategic planning systems. In December 2009, COAG agreed on a set of national criteria for future strategic planning of capital cities. The government’s infrastructure plan meets the COAG requirement for a medium-term prioritised infrastructure plan within the required strategic planning hierarchy for future oriented plans. Under the COAG requirements, this includes long-term strategic plans, between 15 and 30 years, for the ACT, and this role is fulfilled by the Canberra plan and the spatial plan; medium term, that is five to 15 years, prioritised infrastructure plans and land use plans, and for the ACT this is the infrastructure plan, aspects of the spatial plan and the land release programs; and near-term prioritised infrastructure project pipeline backed by detailed project plans, and this requirement is addressed through the budget forward estimates plus agency project plans.
The infrastructure plan provides detail on the main drivers of demand for infrastructure investment over the next 10 years, which includes responding to the changing demographics of the territory and region; maintaining our existing infrastructure as it ages; addressing climate change; and sustaining a strong and dynamic economy. The infrastructure plan includes a high-level summary of the capital initiatives in the budget, complementing the detail published in budget paper No 3. It then addresses the infrastructure priorities over the next 10 years, which are focused on health, education and training, transport, housing and community services, justice and community safety, municipal services, land development and planning, water, energy, and culture and the arts. For each of these areas, the plan identifies projects that will be completed in the next two years, infrastructure priorities over the next five years and key areas for consideration and focus over the next 10 years.
The infrastructure plan is not intended to be a funding plan. It is an expression of the strategic planning of government and a platform for engaging with stakeholders, which then flows into the budget process.
The development of the infrastructure plan was overseen by the chief executives strategic planning committee, which was formed in mid-2009. The aim of the strategic planning committee is to provide advice to government on medium to long-term infrastructure and strategic directions for the territory to support enhanced service delivery to the ACT community, an appropriately planned infrastructure program, integration with other planning activities and development of a government infrastructure plan that takes into account government directions and priorities as well as social, environmental and economic considerations and provides an integrated and across-government approach.
But equally importantly, the views of the community and industry informed the development of the ACT government infrastructure plan. The discussion paper was just one element of this. The government’s budget consultation strategy also played a key role in seeking the community’s views on our future infrastructure requirements. In addition, on 5 March, the government hosted a high-level infrastructure roundtable which provided an opportunity for key stakeholders from a range of ACT business and industry sectors to provide feedback on development of the ACT infrastructure plan and to discuss the issues that will have an impact on Canberra’s future infrastructure needs over the coming decade.
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