Building on earlier strategies
The Strategy has brought together all tiers of government and industry to provide a national, multi-modal approach to address Australia’s growing freight challenges and support Australia’s long term international competitiveness.
The Strategy builds on the achievements of earlier strategies for ports and freight.
The National Ports Strategy, endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments in 2012, took a collaborative approach to drive more efficient, sustainable ports and related freight logistics, and featured four priorities:
- planning for relevant ports
- ensuring plans can be executed
- improving landside efficiency, reliability, security and safety of container ports, and
- promoting clarity, transparency and accountability
The National Land Freight Strategy, agreed by the COAG Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure in 2013, provided a national approach to freight planning. It coordinated government and industry action across the major challenges of:
- ensuring there are long term and integrated plans in place for freight
- investment in the right infrastructure at the right time
- improving access, investment and charging arrangements for heavy vehicles
- creating better and more consistent regulation
- enhancing understanding of the freight task and its associated challenges, and
- building community understanding and support for the role of freight in society
The Strategy brings together the achievements of these earlier strategies to provide an integrated national strategy, as recommended in Infrastructure Australia’s 2016 Australian Infrastructure Plan and the 2018 industry-led Inquiry into National Freight and Supply Chain Priorities.