Business News
WA risks squandering a generational economic boom unless industry and government dismantle internal bureaucracy, end adversarial habits and forge deeper delivery partnerships, former Infrastructure WA chair Nicole Lockwood has warned.
Speaking at Business News’ Sector Briefing: The Future of Infrastructure event at Crown Perth on Tuesday afternoon, Ms Lockwood warned the state had trapped itself in an “everything, everwhere, all at once” mindset, taking on an unprecedented volume of mega-projects without the labour, materials or collaborative delivery models needed to build them.
Her comments came immediately after Deputy Premier and Treasurer Rita Saffioti addressed the room, highlighting the state government’s record $44.5 billion four-year infrastructure program—with 60 per cent earmarked for economic infrastructure.
Ms Lockwood challenged senior public and private sector leaders, saying the biggest threat to the state’s economic future was not standard environmental or government regulations, but human obstruction and institutional inertia.
“I think the scale of opportunity that we need to address and the challenges we’re facing are system-level challenges,” she said.
“We talk now about red tape, green tape, and white tape – and the white tape is us.
“It’s the humans in the room that are very good at creating process, having problems with culture, wanting power, and I think the quicker we can get to grips with that and cut through, the better off the state will be.”