Addressing governance, accountability and performance monitoring issues in partnerships: can 'Infrastructure Australia' provide a strategic response?

This article considers whether a new agency of the national government - Infrastructure Australia - can effectively overcome the many gaps in governance, accountability and performance monitoring, which surround the development and operation of major economic infrastructure projects, gained through public-private partnerships, also known as Privately Financed Projects. To examine the subject agency, the article uses qualitative, case-study research based on literature, document, media review, and findings from previous empirical research, conducted through an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (Johnston and Gudergan 2007, 2009). While findings for this article are tentative due to the relative newness of the organization, the research determines that such an agency will face many challenges, not least of all political ones, if it is to improve the success rate of these large, problematic infrastructure projects. To date, development is slow.All contents © 2008 SPAEF