Broadly defined, a public private partnership is a risk-sharing relationship between the public and private sectors to deliver timely public infrastructure and related non-core services. The specific nature of each partnership will be defined through a contractual agreement covering the delivery of infrastructure facilities over a period of time.
The scope of the public private partnership policy encapsulates the delivery of 'hard' and 'soft' infrastructure facilities, including the services required to operate and maintain those facilities. The policy does not apply to the provision of 'core' public services that involve direct delivery of community services to the public or the exercise of statutory power.
Public private partnerships encompass a broad spectrum of project delivery options. This policy applies to projects involving: design, build and operate; design, build, finance and operate; and equity sharing arrangements. Queensland's public private partnership policy also encompasses the numerous variations on these concepts, including build, own, operate; and build, own, operate, transfer structures. Many of the project structures within this spectrum are not new to Queensland. This value for money framework document builds upon an established project history to present a process for engaging the private sector in infrastructure delivery. The application of this process will be consistent across government.