Locating the public interest in mega infrastructure planning: The case of Sydney’s WestConnex

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802092783
Author(s):  
Glen Searle ◽  
Crystal Legacy
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
Infrastructure Project ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

In Western liberal democracies the planning of mega transport infrastructure projects is guided by public interest claims typically expressed through legislation and political mandates. But with the infrastructure boom being observed in many cities since the Global Financial Crisis, and the need to address unprecedented levels of urbanisation, the level of politicisation directed at infrastructure projects draws attention to how the public interest is treated in the planning and management of complex mega transport infrastructure projects in diverse local contexts. Looking to Sydney, an advanced neoliberal city building the largest transport infrastructure project in Australian history, we examine how public interest is asserted in a way that reinforces legitimacy of the process and consensus for the project. Under these conditions, planners fail or are unwilling to raise additional or new public interest issues. The vagaries of public interest mean that in being open to interpretation the public interest can be easily captured by the interests of capital and of ruling politicians. This raises important questions for urban studies about the role governments and, in particular, public-sector planners can play in advocating for actually existing public interest issues such as environmental sustainability without it amounting to just rhetoric with no follow through.

Attractiveness of Transportation Infrastructure Projects to Private-Sector Financing: Assessing the Hierarchical Analysis, Risk Scenario Method

2000 ◽  
Vol 1732 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Tsamboulas ◽  
Konstanzinos Panou ◽  
Constantionos Abacoumkin
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Transportation Infrastructure ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Risk Allocation ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Conflicting Objectives ◽  
Infrastructure Project ◽  
Private Financing

A method to identify the attractiveness for private financing of a transport infrastructure project is presented. The objective of the method is to assist the public sector in identifying the attractiveness of a transportation infrastructure project for private financing, highlighting the factors that tend to reduce such attractiveness and providing the means to examine the viability of alternative risk-allocation scenarios related to risks undertaken by the state or private sector. The method allows for the simulation of the private sector’s attitude toward risk, employing practices of risk assessment in investments. Its innovation lies in how the whole process is structured so that participants understand beforehand whether an agreement can be concluded and which factors involved are critical. A key property of the method is the ease by which priorities of different risk components are synthesized into a hierarchical form through pairwise comparisons. This method, although targeted primarily for the public sector, could assist both private and public stakeholders investing in transport infrastructure projects (termed private-public partnerships) to reach an agreement. Basically, it is an interactive process characterized by the conflicting objectives and judgments of both public and private sectors.

A new vision for internal audit

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew D. Chambers ◽  
Marjan Odar
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Internal Auditing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how internal auditing may recover from being one of the corporate governance gatekeepers that failed to prevent the global financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on the theory of professions and provides a brief analysis of internal auditing history, ending with an appraisal of contemporary status. Findings – Internal auditing has not been “fit for purpose” and can be enhanced. Low expectations of internal audit are currently addressed by enhanced guidelines from a number of parties. Internal audit needs to move firmly into the corporate governance space – to audit corporate governance more effectively and to provide more dependable assurance to boards. Practical implications – The global Institute of Internal Auditors can use recent enhanced internal auditing guidelines as a springboard to regain their lead. Internal audit needs to cut the umbilical cord that ties it to management. The accepted “dual reporting” of internal audit is flawed. Social implications – Society cedes professional status to an occupational group when it is in society’s best interests to do so. An attribute of a profession is its accent on serving the public interest. It is unsatisfactory that, five years after the global financial crisis broke, the international Standards for internal auditing still do not articulate the correct professional conduct on making external disclosures in the public interest when internal auditors are aware of serious wrongdoing not satisfactorily addressed internally. Originality/value – This paper comprises a conceptual analysis to challenge the internal audit profession.

scholarly journals Models of Financing and Available Financial Resources for Transport Infrastructure Projects

10.14311/290 ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Pokorná ◽  
D. Mocková
Keyword(s):  
Typical Feature ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Project Financing ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Infrastructure Project ◽  
Selection Of

A typical feature of transport infrastructure projects is that they are expensive and take a long time to construct. Transport infrastructure financing has traditionally lain in the public domain. A tightening of many countries' budgets in recent times has led to an exploration of alternative resources for financing transport infrastructures. A variety of models and methods can be used in transport infrastructure project financing. The selection of the appropriate model should be done taking into account not only financial resources but also the distribution of construction and operating risks and the contractual relations between the stakeholders.

scholarly journals The Planning and Appraisal of Mega Transport Infrastructure Projects Delivered by Public–Private Partnerships: The Case for the Use of Policy-Led Multi-Criteria Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1992-2008
Author(s):  
John Ward ◽  
Harry T Dimitriou ◽  
Brian G Field ◽  
Marco Dean
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
National Development ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Public Private Partnerships ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Project Appraisal ◽  
Multi Criteria Analysis ◽  
Development Literature

Abstract Mega transport infrastructure projects are frequently perceived as critical to the “success” of major metropolitan, regional and national development because of their potential to affect significant socioeconomic and territorial changes. However, the mega infrastructure development literature tends to focus upon the frequent failures of such projects because of their inability to meet their original expectations. A major cause for such perceived underperformance has been attributed to the inadequacies of ex-ante project appraisal methodologies. In particular, their excessively narrow focus has prompted growing calls for broader and more transparent project appraisal frameworks. These calls coincide with a period where public private partnerships (PPPs) are growing in importance globally as the favoured procurement route for governments looking to undertake new mega transport infrastructure developments. Some see the practicalities of PPPs as placing them at odds with aspirations for more inclusive and open project appraisal with adequate consideration of the public interest. It is the authors’ contention that if introduced with broader and more systematically presented sustainability concerns, PPPs can remain compatible with such ambitions. Towards this end, this paper presents the rudimentaries of a policy-led multi-criteria analysis (PLMCA) approach to project appraisal as a means by which PLMCA can contribute to more holistic PPP procurement practices. The authors contend in the latter part of the paper that PLMCA addresses many of the limitations associated with the application of narrower decision-making and project appraisal approaches currently supporting PPPs and other more conventional procurement practices.

English public management reform after 2010

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie ◽  
Sue Dopson ◽  
Chris Bennett ◽  
Michael D. Fischer ◽  
Jean Ledger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Management ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Management Reform ◽  
Big Society ◽  
New Public ◽  
Primary Care Sector ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

This chapter characterizes the overall strategy of public services reform apparent in England after the global financial crisis of 2008 and during the period of the UK’s Coalition government 2010–15. It argues that what can be termed a ‘proto narrative’ of reform, orientated around so-called ‘Big Society’ ideas, emerged around 2010. However, we argue it was trumped in the end by Treasury-led and New Public Management-friendly austerity discourse. The concrete example is taken of the health policy to form new clinical commissioning groups in the primary care sector. They were presented as a mechanism which could promote professional engagement in commissioning. However, they were soon subjected to top-down performance management pressures and systems, including strong attempts to prevent financial deficits from emerging at a local level, which eroded bottom-up and professionally driven innovation. We conclude that the Big Society proto reform narrative failed to consolidate itself.

Urban Green Innovation

2021 ◽  
pp. 138-153
Author(s):  
José G. Vargas-Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Capacity Planning ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Green Innovation ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
The Public ◽  
Innovation Capacity

This chapter has the objective to analyze the elements of urban green innovation based on the guarantee the public interest, decentralize the infrastructure to democratize the territory, and innovating the institutional design to address the complexity of the challenges in the city. The method employed is the critical analysis supported by a review of the literature and consult to experts in the field. It is concluded that the urban green innovation capacity planning has a critical role in urban innovation development in specific areas of economic growth, social inclusion and equality, environmental sustainability, health, education, business, etc. To achieve these aims, urban green innovation requires to guarantee the public interest, the democratization of the territory, and the new institutional design.

scholarly journals Regulating Private Higher Education in South Africa

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chika Sehoole
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Financial Crises ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Private Higher Education ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

This article makes case of how South Africa has been able to use its laws and policies to achieve its objectives of regulating private higher education. This happened in the context of an ascendancy of neo-liberal policies which favoured deregulation and the rolling back of the state. Through these policies the government was able to protect the public even during the global financial crisis as it had registered credible and financially sound institutions which could weather off the financial crises which affected many private companies worldwide.

Territory Democratization and Institutional Design in Urban Green Innovation

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
José G. Vargas-Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Capacity Planning ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Green Innovation ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
The Public ◽  
Innovation Capacity

This chapter has the objective to analyze the elements of urban green innovation based on the guarantee of the public interest to decentralize the infrastructure to democratize the territory and innovate the institutional design to address the complexity of the challenges in the city. The method employed is the critical analysis supported by a review of the literature and consultation of experts in the field. It is concluded that the urban green innovation capacity planning has a critical role in urban innovation development in specific areas of economic growth, social inclusion and equality, environmental sustainability, health, education, business, etc. To achieve these aims, urban green innovation requires one to guarantee the public interest, the democratization of the territory, and the new institutional design.

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