Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) and the Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA) received the following note from the National Transport Commission (NTC).
I am writing to thank you for your valuable contribution to both the Who moves what where and National land transport productivity framework projects over the past two years. This week we asked the Transport and Infrastructure Council to adopt the National Land Transport Productivity Framework, supported by data collection, to quantify how government and industry interventions impact productivity.
As well as noting the Who moves what where Information paper, the Council also endorsed the Project Outcomes report: Supporting good decisions to improve transport productivity and supported development of land transport productivity estimates, consistent with the National land transport productivity framework by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE). This will form part of BITRE's National Infrastructure Data Collection and Dissemination Plan project.
In further good news, our colleagues at the Australian Bureau of Statistics will produce an experimental transport satellite account in 2017-18. This will establish the contribution of transport to Australia's gross domestic product. This data will significantly enhance the national framework. The Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development will fund the experimental transport satellite account, after which a decision will be made about ongoing future funding support.
Other key areas for improvement identified in the Project outcomes report considered by Ministers now need to be adopted and progressed by relevant agencies, these include:
| Key area for improvement | Agency/ies to take this work forward |
| Developing (or continuing to develop) an Open Data Policy by the end of 2018 | State and territory transport agencies, National Transport Commission, National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator, Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board. |
| National adoption of open data standards and access arrangements, and a review of metrics collected across Australia to facilitate better comparisons | To be led by the Australian Transport Data Action Network. |
| Work with transport associations and through them, their members, to promote the benefits of sharing information across the supply chain. | National Transport Commission to lead. |
Lastly, as an outcome of this project, the NTC has been able to secure access to reports about import and export commodity movements and values. We will continue to provide this to states and territories quarterly under appropriate controls. Some of the reported uses of the data to date include:
- Modelling the distribution of containers and product types from ports to their destination postcode and determining trends and supply chain intelligence to forecast future movements
- Informing state and territory regional transport plans, as well as innovation and investment programs to assist and attract business
- Understanding the the movement of commodity types at a granular level not only by the weight, but their dollar value (one of the key gaps identified in the Who moves what where Discussion paper earlier this year).
These improvements to the way we understand and analyse the transport sector in Australia will improve advice to Ministers about reforms related to charges, energy consumption, congestion, infrastructure assessment, market structures and economic impacts.
Thank you once again for your valuable contribution to the delivery of these projects.
Kind regards,
Melissa
Melissa O'Brien | Manager – Productivity, Safety and Environment | National Transport Commission
Level 3/600 Bourke Street | Melbourne VIC 3000
T: (03) 9236 5043