Is megaproject and PPP risk allocation broken? Why should project owners change their approach? What can be done to fix it?

Infralegal is delighted to have participated in today’s Grattan Institute webinar on getting better ‘bang-for-buck’ from transport infrastructure projects. As our founding principal, Owen Hayford, said, Australian taxpayers do pay too much for our transport infrastructure but not for the reasons that the Grattan Institute suggests.

The Grattan Institute’s most recent report on the transport sector “Megabang for megabucks: Driving a harder bargain on megaprojects” caused quite a stir when it was released two months ago – mostly because of its opening sentence:

Taxpayers end up paying too much for major road and rail projects in Australia because governments don’t drive a hard bargain on contracts with the big construction firms.

But is that right?