Plans must be shovel ready

Governments should set transparent targets for things such as urban road congestion levels, on-time running and capacity of public transport, road and rail travel times between the main intercity destinations, the extent of water restrictions and the percentage of our water systems that are under stress.

Third, we need to drive improvements in how infrastructure is priced and regulated, and to build effective and well-regulated national infrastructure markets.

Action is needed at the state and federal levels through the Council of Australian Governments.

In the coming weeks, Infrastructure Australia will deliver its first report to COAG. This is the right time to fix the problems with Australia's system of economic infrastructure, and to start delivering the better infrastructure we know we should have.