INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF AUSTRALIA INFRASTRUCTURE PERFORMANCE

International benchmarking has played a key role in the reform of Aust ralia's infrastructure industries by promoting indirect or yardstick c ompetition, in highlighting the need for further reform and building a consensus for implementing necessary changes. The international bench marking of infrastructure performance by the Bureau of Industry Econom ics (BIE) between 1991 and 1996 did much to focus attention on the nee d for change. The BIE examined the performance of eight infrastructure industries relative to international best practice: electricity, rail freight, telecommunications, the waterfront, road freight, coastal sh ipping, aviation and gas supply. Performance comparisons concentrated on indicators of price, service quality, labour productivity and capit al productivity. This paper reviews and summarises the performance com parisons the BIE undertook over the last three years of its infrastruc ture benchmarking program. The BIE international benchmarking program provides a useful role model for other countries wanting to seriously pursue reform of their infrastructure industries.