17th Jul 2014, 4:17 PM – Senate Asset Recycling Fund Bill 2014 and Asset Recycling Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014 - In Committee - Approvals to Infrastructure Minister

This division relates to the Policies For privatising government assets and For increasing funding to road infrastructure.

The majority voted in favour of an amendment introduced by Labor Senator Doug Cameron. This means that it was successful.

Senator Cameron explained that the amendment is to "consolidate infrastructure approvals with the Minister for Infrastructure".(Read Senator Cameron's full explanation of the amendment here. ) In other words, it is for that Minister to make infrastructure approvals. Senator Cameron described this amendment as "simply common sense".

Background to the bills

The Asset Recycling Fund Bill 2014 and the related Asset Recycling Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014 were introduced to create the Asset Recycling Fund ('ARF').

The ARF is the fund from which grants to states and territories will be sourced under the Asset Recycling Initiative ('ARI'), which was developed to assist states to privatise assets and to speed up the construction of transport infrastructure in capital cities.(Read the Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss's comments on the initiative on ABC's PM program here. ) Under the ARI, states and territories will be encouraged to sell assets, including transport infrastructure, and use the proceeds to fund new public infrastructure. By way of encouragement, the Commonwealth will provide a financial contribution of 15 per cent of the asset value of the sale that is used to fund the new infrastructure.(See the bills digest for more information. )

The Council of Australian Governments voted in favour of the ARI on 2 May 2014.(Read more about COAG's decision to agree with the ARI on ABC News here.)