34. In March 2008, COAG agreed to its Infrastructure Working Group's recommendation that the National Infrastructure Audit be one of the immediate priorities for Infrastructure Australia, the others being the development of an Infrastructure Priority List and development of National Public Private Partnership Guidelines. The Audit was to be completed by December 2008, some eight months after Infrastructure Australia was established by legislation and five months after the Infrastructure Coordinator was formally appointed. The timeframe was met, with the results of the Audit being published in December 2008 (together with the Interim Priority List).
35. The conduct of the National Infrastructure Audit was complicated by the first request for submissions being made prior to Infrastructure Australia developing its Audit methodology. This situation, and the significant variability in the quality and extent of the submissions received, necessitated a further request for submissions.
36. In formulating the December 2008 Report, Infrastructure Australia relied on a range of material. This included:
• submissions made by various organisations as part of the public submissions process;
• existing studies and reports from Commonwealth bodies, such as the Productivity Commission; and
• Commonwealth and State Government submissions made to Infrastructure Australia throughout 2008.
37. The National Infrastructure Audit revealed considerable gaps in the national systems for collecting, holding and analysing the data used to inform infrastructure investment decisions. The submission process attempted to address some of these gaps, but this was not successful.
38. The first objective of the National Infrastructure Audit was to determine the adequacy, capacity and condition of nationally significant infrastructure, taking into account forecast growth. The second objective was to identify gaps, deficiencies, impediments and bottlenecks in the identified sectors as measured against expected future demand. However, neither of these objectives were explicitly addressed in the reported outcomes of the Audit. Instead, the Report identified a range of 'challenges' at a national and location‐specific level and Infrastructure Australia's proposed response to these challenges. Separately, Infrastructure Australia is developing infrastructure strategies in areas such as freight and ports, water, energy and public transport in response to issues raised in relation to the second objective above. In April 2010 the Office of the Infrastructure Coordinator advised ANAO that its view was that, given the data limitations and the available timeframe, the intent of COAG's terms of reference had been satisfied.22
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22 See further at paragraph 2.26.