Poor public infrastructure takes toll on growth
Industry Super Australia (ISA) is calling out state governments on their lack of public infrastructure investment, which is resulting in poor growth figures and capital expenditure decline.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show that the construction industry fell 3.6 per cent during the September quarter, while there was also a decline of 0.5 percentage points in public capital expenditure compared to the June quarter.
The poor performance of the construction industry resulted in it being the largest contributor of all industries to the fall in GDP growth. ISA chief economist, Stephen Anthony, said the fault lay with state governments, who had failed to deliver on local jobs and economic promises.
"Industry Super has repeatedly called for more public sector investment to counteract the pending doldrums caused by the end of the mining investment boom," he said.
"Governments — federal, state and territory — must sit down at the table with both investors and communities to start delivering real productivity-enhancing mega-projects."
Anthony said the writing had been on the wall for some time, and that industry super funds were waiting to benefit from investment in the construction of infrastructure.
"Australian industry funds... have repeatedly appealed to governments to provide a pipeline of investment-ready' projects," he said.
"Australian industry funds have a massive appetite for investment."
September figures showed the first quarter of negative growth in close to six years.
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