Making infrastructure come alive in the public debate

Infrastructure is a neglected topic in mainstream Australia. We take it for granted, and yet within politics and the wider community little attention is paid to it.

Unfortunately politics is not a “rational scientific” activity (unlike engineering). Engineers live in a fact-based community but the politicians and media do not. No company would be run in the way that a government operates, with its frenetic pace, short-term thinking, no grand vision and little time for reflection.

This is an era of media-dominated politics. There is less political leadership and more political “follower-ship” (politicians find out where the crowd is running and then get in front of it).

Some politicians may know what to do (such as on climate change) – but not how to get re-elected once they have done it. Therefore they do not do it.

This is a bleak picture for those of us concerned with the long-term issues of infrastructure.

It is therefore necessary to reframe the infrastructure topic to try to push it higher up the political and media agenda.

Here are three “messages” for trying to increase the public profile of infrastructure.

First, infrastructure is important. Australia is one of the few developed Western countries with a growing population (about 400,000 per year) but infrastructure is not keeping up with the population growth.

No society has ever developed without improving its infrastructure. Indeed it is often the residue of the infrastructure that is a lasting physical monument to what civilisation that achieved. Roman roads 2000 years ago knitted the empire together, while canals and railways in the 18th century UK Industrial Revolution took British goods to a global market. It is easy to see today the residue of those engineering marvels.

Infrastructure development continues to underpin economic progress, such as China’s ambitious infrastructure programmes since the late 1970s. Almost half a billion Chinese have been lifted out of poverty – one of the greatest economic achievements in recent decades. China has recently created the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as an addition to the big financial institutions established after the Second World War, to maintain the infrastructure momentum.

Meanwhile, Australian road improvements (such as shoulder sealing) reduce road accidents and so help contain police and health care costs. Poor infrastructure by contrast is therefore a health hazard.

Second, good infrastructure safeguards “national security”. The US provides a good example of this.

On 29 June 1956 President Eisenhower signed into law the Interstate Highway System. This was one of the most ambitious and consequential engineering projects in history.

He was able to get Congressional approval for it because he argued that in the event of a Soviet attack, the US needed to move its forces across the country easily. He had learnt this from fighting Germany in the Second World War, where the Germans had developed a road system to move forces easily across their country.

Luckily the roads have not been required to deal with a Soviet invasion but they have helped transform the US economy and way of life.

This is a “no regrets” approach to expenditure. The original problem for which this was a solution has not needed to be addressed (Soviet invasion) but there have been so many positive side-effects that the project has been fully justified.

Australia thankfully faces no risk of a Russian invasion but there is still a need to keep infrastructure in good condition.

Third, innovation creates a momentum that builds upon itself and so helps transform a country.

About a century ago Henry Ford transformed the production process so he could make cars for the masses. Previously motor cars had been developed in Europe for racing and luxury purposes.

Ford’s genius was that he could see a mass market could be created for cars, provided they were produced cheaply enough for ordinary people to be able to buy them. Ford transformed the car from a luxury to a necessity.

The 1908 Model T initiated a new era in personal transportation. It was easy to operate, maintain and handle on tough roads.

The momentum built. Ford paid a minimum wage of US$5 per day (higher than other factory owners) and he reduced daily working hours from nine to eight hours. He made it possible for workers to be able to buy their own produce.