Sydney's infrastructure 'still catching up after the city's 16 lost years': Federal Infrastructure and Cities Minister Paul Fletcher

Sydney is only now recovering from “16 lost years” of inadequate planning for the city’s boom in population, according to Federal Infrastructure and Cities Minister Paul Fletcher.

In his keynote address at the launch of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia’s (CEDA) annual report of the country’s Economic and Political Overview in 2018 on Tuesday, Mr Fletcher said Sydney’s infrastructure was still catching up to the rapid population growth the city had experienced in the past decade.

“Of course it takes some time to catch up, but look at what’s getting rolled out. We saw from 1995 to 2012 a state government which failed to come to grips with the issues and the planning required. Since that time state Liberal governments have been doing an excellent job,” Mr Fletcher told Domain. Mr Fletcher also lobbed specific criticism at former NSW premier Bob Carr for his now-infamous statement in 2000 that Sydney was “full”.

Mr Carr defended his government’s record on infrastructure spending and long-term planning, noting the construction of several major projects during his tenure as premier including the Eastern Distributor, Lane Cove Tunnel, M7 Westlink, M5 East, Cross City Tunnel, the Epping to Chatswood rail line as well the start on the South West Rail Link and North West Rail Link.

“I’m proud of the huge increase in infrastructure spending when I was premier. Under a Coalition Government not a single project conceived by them has yet been opened in seven years,” he said.

When asked about what was being done by the federal and state government to future-proof Sydney for an expected surge in population, Mr Fletcher pointed to western Sydney as a glowing example of how the city’s growing pains were being addressed.

“What is important is to integrate urban development with transport planning and that’s certainly a central theme of the Western Sydney City Deal. Over the next 20 years there’s expected to be another million people in Western Sydney.”

The deal is a 20-year agreement between the Commonwealth, NSW government and eight western Sydney councils to deliver planning and development in a number of areas including transport, housing and jobs.

“It’s where much of Sydney’s growth will be occurring so it’s important we’re planning for that ahead of time. If you go to the site of the future Western Sydney airport now, it’s largely fields and it’s being turned into a construction site but there’s not a lot of housing there and in the future that will change,” Mr Fletcher said.

When asked about other parts of Sydney, Mr Fletcher said it would still take a while for infrastructure projects underway to start delivering.

CEDA’s latest report highlighted that after years of ‘disappointing outcomes’, infrastructure spending was now growing in Australia. The predicted rise in infrastructure spending would contribute to half a per cent of GDP growth each year and contribution through employment and productivity was guaranteed for years afterwards.

The report also found falling residential construction could reduce economic growth in 2018 by 1 per cent of GDP but noted the boom had the potential to continue for some time yet due to the number of higher-density dwellings in the pipeline. The downturn would be milder because apartments would take longer to complete.

Australia needed to keep residential building at faster-than normal rates despite the biggest boom on record because the ratio of construction to population growth was running below average levels in Australia, the report found.

It was a similar sentiment echoed by Toby Long, Mirvac NSW general manager of residential, who said while the NSW government’s record $80 billion infrastructure was good news, public infrastructure projects like transport links could be built quicker.

“It would be nice if it was quicker but [the government] is starting to get the message [that infrastructure is important],” Mr Long said.

Mr Carr said if the federal government was allowing for high levels of immigration, they should give the states extra money for housing and urban infrastructure spending to deal with density.