Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 3:22:25 to 3:24:51
Following the opening of Western Sydney Airport, the department reflects on the success of the project, highlighting the importance of inter-jurisdictional partnerships and the GBE delivery model.
Topics: Infrastructure, Integrity, Procurement
Speakers: Mr. Jim Betts, Hon Bridget McKenzie, Senator Glenn Sterle, Unknown Speaker
done in corporate. Thank you very
there's any, you know, fun advertising campaigns you've done or
>> We'll let you escape and we'll go to outcome.
>> Actually, actually, actually, I do. Sorry, chair. Before and >> well, we opened Western Sydney Airport yesterday, which was a fantastic example of um bipartisanship over many, many decades. and um it was great to be there um as part of a cabinet that put a lot of funding in and um congratulate both sides of parliament for actually delivering an infrastructure project on time or under time and on budget as I recall Mr. Betts. So my question I guess now that we've got the big heads for corporate all around the table is what are the lessons for delivering a project of that complexity and size I don't know if there's another infrastructure project of that you know that is um on time and on budget what can we learn from the delivery of Western Sydney airport um that we could apply more broadly to infrastructure delivery across the country.
>> Um I'm at risk of volunteering opinions here rather than um merely facts. However, having worked in New South
>> experienced facts, you know,
>> yeah, hopefully some evidence underneath them. I was working in the New South Wales government when the Abbott government took the decision to fund Western Sydney Airport substantively. um and the level of partnership that was established between the jurisdictions, New South Wales for the purposes of delivering um the land transport connections and um the Commonwealth for the purposes of delivering the airport was um very strong from the outset. Uh I think uh Western Sydney Airport established as a government business enterprise at arms length with its own board and a very good board helped >> the use of a delivery partner model to bring in external expertise particularly from Becktel um enabled uh the project to resource up at speed with very high quality resources on the client side. um that made a big difference to be honest being a green field project rather than uh in the middle of a city or in the middle of a national park could have helped. Um so there are a few lessons and no doubt there'll be an audit in due course which will throw light on this. Um but um it has been a success and I do think both sides of politics deserve credit for >> their continued investment in it.