A STRONG increase in major government-funded infrastructure projects helped stem a decline in private infrastructure spending, according to a recent Australian Bureau of Statistics report.
The report on engineering construction activity in Australia notes that private sector investment on infrastructure decreased by 8.6 per cent from September 1998 to September 1999.
Yet total engineering construction increased by 0.3 per cent over the year to September 1999 thanks to government work for the public sector rising 16.6 per cent for the period.
Work done by the private sector for the public sector also increased by 2.6 per cent during the year to September 1999.
While public infrastructure spending has been increasing since 1995, the same cannot be said for private sector engineering construction work which has been in decline sine 1997.
WA attracted almost one in every six dollars of the $6.5 billion spent on infrastructure in Australia during the September quarter – surpassed only by New South Wales and Queensland.
Expenditure on roads, highways and subdivisions accounted for one-quarter of activity while infrastructure spending in the mining sector attracted one-third of investment in WA.
Interestingly, the infrastructure spending in WA was not public sector induced.
WA attracted just 3.3 per cent of Commonwealth funding for capital works in the September quarter.
New South Wales, on the other hand, received 41 per cent of the $747 million spent during the same period, while Queensland attracted a further 25 per cent.
Total government spending in WA during the September quarter equalled $79 million – $31 million from local government, $23.5 million from the State and $24.6 million from the Commonwealth.
