Productivity, resilience, decarbonisation and data are the four key elements an updated national freight strategy released by the Federal Government yesterday.
The refreshed National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy and new National Action Plan represents an update on the original strategy which was first released in 2019.
Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Catherine King says it is well known that without viable and reliable freight networks, Australia stops.
“The journey of goods from farm-gate, factory or port to the shopping aisle or building largely goes unnoticed, except in those rare instances where something in the supply chain goes wrong,” King says.
“As industry and consumer demands grows, it’s vital our roads, rails and ports can accommodate increasing freight movements with resilience, efficiency and emissions-reduction front of mind.
“Now more than ever, Australians need supply chains that are resilient and able to withstand disruption.”
The updated strategy comes in the wake of significant challenges to Australia’s supply chain, including COVID-19, geopolitical shifts, extreme weather events and worker shortages.
It also comes at a time when Australia’s freight task is projected to grow 26 per cent between 2020 and 2050.
The review of the existing strategy found its foundations remained strong and recommended the strategy be refreshed with a smaller number of nationally significant actions and a focus on productivity, resilience, decarbonisation and data in order to support more efficient supply chains.
The new National Action Plan outlines a set of actions that government and industry will work together to deliver over the next five years.
Key actions include:
- Developing a National Freight Resilience Plan to ensure a consistent and coordinated response to significant supply chain disruptions.
- Developing a Freight Infrastructure Investment Framework to guide infrastructure investment decisions in freight networks across Australia.
- Conducting safety research on batteries and zero emission power technologies for freight vehicles and locomotives as well as promoting the uptake of safety and productivity boosting technology.
- Modelling the current and future freight and supply chain network, to consider what is needed to support its efficiency and effectiveness into the future.
To access the refreshed strategy and the action plan see www.freightaustralia.gov.au/.