In November 2008, a national PPP policy and guidelines were endorsed by the Council of Australia Governments. These requirements, developed in conjunction with Commonwealth, State and Territory Government agencies (Infrastructure Australia 2008b: p.12) are intended to provide a unified approach for the procurement and delivery of PPPs in Australia (Infrastructure Australia 2008b: p.6, p.3). Individual jurisdictions must adhere to these requirements unless a government decision is taken in a jurisdiction to depart from them (which must then be approved by the appropriate authority e.g. Treasury or Finance) (Infrastructure Australia 2008b: p.6). In addition, there may be specific requirements that apply to each jurisdiction that differ from the national guidelines (Infrastructure Australia 2008a: p.1). In such circumstances, these requirements must be considered in conjunction with the national policy and guidelines (Infrastructure Australia 2012: p.3).
This means, for instance, that all PPP projects released to the market in Victoria, commencing January 2009, are subject to the national policy and guidelines, and where they allow flexibility, requirements specific to Victoria apply (unless a government decision is taken to advise that other provisions will apply) (Infrastructure Australia 2012: p.38). Although the national guidelines are broadly consistent with the pre-existing Partnerships Victoria framework, a new policy requirement for Victorian projects is the consideration of PPP as a procurement option for capital expenditure in excess of $50 million (Infrastructure Australia 2012: p.37) (although assets below this threshold can use a streamlined PPP approach if suitable VfM drivers are identified (Department of Treasury and Finance 2013: p.3). Moreover, the national policy and guidelines apply to all public infrastructure projects in Victoria where the estimated payments made by the State for the delivery of services that underpin the assets is in excess of $50 million (Infrastructure Australia 2012: p.38). For New South Wales, the new requirements under the New South Wales Guidelines supersede the Working with Government Guidelines for PFP (Infrastructure Australia 2012: p.15).
Although the procurement and delivery aspects apply consistently across all jurisdictions including Victoria and New South Wales, each is responsible for developing and applying methodologies for determining public interest matters, project implementation and delivering core services (Infrastructure Australia 2008b: p.3; Infrastructure Australia 2012: p.9).