2.5 The first type of evidence gathered for the purposes of the National Infrastructure Audit was from States and Territories. The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government wrote to State and Territory governments on 29 April 2008 seeking their draft input to his Ministerial Office by 16 May 2008, with final submissions due by 30 June 2008.
2.6 To assist the State and Territory governments in the development of their submissions, the Commonwealth Department of the Treasury developed an Audit template, subsequently agreed by the Infrastructure Working Group in its meeting of 6 March 2008. This template suggested that those making submissions should concentrate on identifying core strategic priorities and issues, without extensive technical details, with an indicative length of around 50 pages. The template recommended three major parts to jurisdiction submissions:
• a summary of key infrastructure issues facing the State or Territory. This was to include key findings on current and/or emerging infrastructure gaps or bottlenecks. As part of this section, States and Territories were also asked to identify their general approach to developing productive capacity and their major infrastructure priorities;
• sectoral analysis on specific infrastructure sectors; and
• a brief analysis of relevant infrastructure capacities and future requirements for their key regions and cities.
2.7 Each of the States and Territories made a final submission to the National Infrastructure Audit, in either June or July 2008.69 Three organisations which were not State and Territory governments also made submissions to the National Infrastructure Audit-the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government (on behalf of the Commonwealth Government), the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) and the Brisbane City Council.
2.8 The State and Territory government submissions varied significantly in format and approach, and did not strictly follow the National Infrastructure Audit template. However, nearly all of them contained sectoral analysis of infrastructure within the State and Territory, and a set of infrastructure priorities for the State or Territory.
2.9 The non‐State and Territory government submissions also varied in their analytical approach:
• the Commonwealth Government submission provided a sectoral analysis of Australia's infrastructure, relating to the transport, energy, resources, water and telecommunications sectors. This analysis included information on proposed and current Commonwealth Government action in these areas. In this context, the submission contained information on the proposed National Broadband Network;
• Brisbane City Council's submission contained a summary of the economic profiles of Brisbane's transport corridors, as well as information on proposed road, bikeway and busway projects; and
• the ARTC submission contained a range of strategic documents relating to the development of its rail network.
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69 Where covering letters were retained on DITRDLG or the Office of the Infrastructure Coordinator records, the letters were addressed to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government or his office (in four instances), the then Prime Minister in one instance, the Chair of the Infrastructure Australia Council in one instance and the Chair of the Infrastructure Australia Council care of DITRDLG in one instance.