The Australian Business Foundation (ABF) is the research arm of Australian Business Limited, a progressive peak body representing business interests. As part of their research mandate, ABF required an investigation of how 'imaginative approaches' to infrastructure could boost economic prosperity.
Through rounds of consultation, significant original research and in collaboration with NIEIR, SGS provided a positioning paper which examined the role that infrastructure improvement could have in unlocking the economic potential of Western Sydney, the Illawarra and the Hunter - the three industrial regions which surround Sydney. The paper advocated reform and policy development in the areas of: strengthening governance, boosting resources for regional infrastructure investment, connectivity infrastructure, and knowledge & learning infrastructure.
The final position paper succeeded in bringing together public and private infrastructure managers, users and stakeholders in the generation of fresh ideas about how to produce economic benefits through infrastructure beyond single regions, beyond professional specialities, and beyond portfolios of government.