Aspecto rendimiento académico

The Rudd Government’s December 2008 and February 2009 announcements aimed at strongly supporting jobs and insulating the Australian economy from the worst of the global financial crisis, were collectively known as The Nation Building-Economic Stimulus Plan (NB-ESP). This was an effort in investing in long-term infrastructure needs of the country, anticipating a higher productivity while creating job opportunities and maintaining an economic stability. As a result, the Rudd government announced in its May 2008 Budget, the establishment of a Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program (RLCIP) to commence over the fiscal year 2009-10. In its first round $800 million was allocated to LGAs to build and improve community infrastructure and boost local economies while $220 million and $100 million were distributed in the second and third rounds respectively.

On 9th April 2008 Infrastructure Australia, a statutory body, was established under the Infrastructure Australia Act 2008 with the intention of providing economic, social and environmental advantages to the nation by way of improving the national productivity through quality and efficient infrastructure (IA 2012). Accordingly the major function of the body is to advise the minister, commonwealth, state, territory and local governments, investors in infrastructure and owners of infrastructure in relation to Australia’s current and future needs and priorities with regards to nationally significant infrastructure. Nationally significant infrastructure includes transport, energy, communication and water infrastructure. The body is also concerned the ways of financing investment in infrastructure.

In addition on 18 September 2008, the Prime Minister, and Minister Albanese announced the establishment of the Australian Council of Local Government (ACLG) to forge a new cooperative engagement between the Australian and local governments giving a voice to local government on matters of national significance. Further, the Local Government Reform Fund (LGRF) was introduced with the objective of improving a nationally consistent framework for asset and financial management capabilities of LGAs. This framework would encourage

greater collaboration between LGAs and provide nationally consistent data to enable the performance of LGAs to be measured Under Phase 1 of the Local Government Reform Fund, the Australian Government has agreed to fund projects to the value of $16.521 million. Funding of further projects was to be approved in 2011 under Phase 2 of the LGRF (DRALGAS 2011a).

The Roads to Recovery (R2R) Program which was initiated in 2000 by the federal government was extended in 2007 until June 2014 (DIT 2012a). Funding for the program will also be increased to $350 million from 2009-10. The program was initiated by the Federal government and operates uniformly across all jurisdictions in Australia with the intention of filling the gap in the road funding requirement to maintain a satisfactory level of service. R2R is jointly administered by LGAs and the Federal Department of Infrastructure and Transport. The funds are directly submitted by the Federal Government to the LGAs (specific purpose payments) which decide the spending.

In 2009, the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACLG) was established by the Australian Government with an initial investment of $8 million in order to enhance professionalism and to develop best practices in local government (DRALGAS 2011b). There are five consortium partners -University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), University of Canberra, the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, Local Government Managers Australia and the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia Limited. There are also three program partners- the Australian National University, Charles Darwin University and Edith Cowan University. Activities of the ACLG are grouped into six programs and one of them is an organisation capacity building program which aims to develop asset management planning and infrastructure financial planning among LGAs across all jurisdictions in Australia.

Under the inter-jurisdictional distribution of the Financial Assistance Grant of the local road component, the South Australian LGAs are at a disadvantage. In order to combat this issue in May 2011 the Australian Government announced that South Australia's local governing bodies would receive an estimated $51 million in supplementary local road funding over the period 2011-12 to 2013-14 (FSRB 2005).

Further, the government funds a project which identifies dangerous road locations through consultation with the larger community, with the intention of preventing crashes. This Black Spot Program has provided $59.5 million per annum towards construction of traffic lights and roundabouts at dangerous locations (DIT 2012b).

The National Asset Management Committee (NAMS.AU) of the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (IPWEA) has taken a national leadership role in sustainable management of infrastructure assets insisting on a nationally consistent framework. This is to be achieved through a special training program based on the International Infrastructure Management Manual (IIMM). The aim of the program is to assist service providing organisations, particularly for LGAs to write their own asset management plans (IPWEA 2012). Currently there are two training programs conducted namely NAMS.PLUS which targets large LGAs with a population of more than 5000 while NAMS.lite is suitable for small rural or remote LGAs with a population of less than 5000. By year 2012 more than 300 LGAs had participated in these training programs.

In addition to the above explained program, IPWEA in association with the National Local Government Financial Management Forum carryout a project to provide the Australian Infrastructure Financial Management Guidelines to every organisation and individual who has a responsibility for managing infrastructure assets. The guidelines provide directions in the following areas: accounting for infrastructure, depreciation, valuation, useful life, fair value, managing financial sustainability, integrating asset management planning and long term financial planning, and meeting frameworks for financial reporting. These Guidelines have been well received with over 600 copies sold by 2011.

The Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport with the aim of recognising, rewarding and promoting the innovative work of LGAs, runs The National Awards for Local Government (DRALGAS 2009). In year 2012 there were 16 award categories sponsored by different departments of Australian Government. Two of those 16 awards are with respect to infrastructure assets. One award is the Asset and Financial Management Award which recognises asset and financial management projects or initiatives that build the sustainability and capacity of LGAs to meet community needs. This award is open to all LGAs with an emphasis on the maintenance, upgrading and replacement of community infrastructure assets, enhancement of the quality of infrastructure assets, prioritising the infrastructure requirements with the consultation of the community and

adoption of best financial management practices. The other award is the Innovative Infrastructure Development Award which recognises the LGAs that have implemented innovative infrastructure projects meeting the requirements of the local community. This award is open to all LGAs and the innovative projects can be with respect to physical, social or economic infrastructure.

2.11 Academic Studies on Infrastructure Assets in the Local Government