Procurement innovation at the level of infrastructure markets, and at a project level, is important if new, sustainable social infrastructure is to be built in Australia. Given the infrastructure needs of other countries in the region such as China and India, procurement innovation is important for Australia to attract capital, knowledge and skills, in order to service its own infrastructure needs.
One issue that is not often discussed is the way in which the presence of PPPs within a particular sector or jurisdiction may increase competition and competitive choice in the broader market. From this perspective, PPPs characterise competition between different procurement methods and foster innovation within these methods. One of the proclaimed advantages of PPP procurement is the design freedom that is allowed in conjunction with performance-based output specifications. This issue needs to be studied more thoroughly, as the benefits of innovation from the PPP procurement model could conceivably also be applied to Traditional procurement models. However, there will be limits to this transfer of benefits, as it is the unique combination of incentives and constraints surrounding a PPP consortium that drives the full value contribution of the approach.