Challenging but highly rewarding infrastructure reforms must be confronted, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said today.
Addressing an IPART conference in Sydney, Mr Sims outlined opportunities and challenges in the immediate reform agenda across a range of areas including water, electricity, communications and transport.
Mr Sims also highlighted the enormous changes in the infrastructure landscape in Australia during the past 25 years and noted that productivity is making a welcome return to the national debate.
"Many of the infrastructure reforms I have described today contributed greatly to Australia’s past productivity success. And some of the remaining challenges I have described, left unaddressed, could be harming our current levels of productivity."
"Uninformed comments that say all the easy reforms have been done should not be used to avoid the challenging but highly rewarding microeconomic reforms that we need to confront today."
Mr Sims also spoke about the role of Part IIIA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and the pending Productivity Commission review.
"In looking at how the [National Access] Regime has performed to deliver those efficiency and productivity benefits, the report card is mixed."
Mr Sims said getting the right regulatory access oversight in place is a key challenge to increasing the competitiveness, for example, of the mining industry.