A performance audit into whether the Department of Transport (DoT) has integrated its transport planning and met its requirements under the Transport Integration Act 2010 has found that it has not.
In his report, Integrated Transport Planning, Acting Auditor-General, Dave Barry said the Act required DoT to prepare and periodically revise the transport plan for Victoria.
“DoT and its predecessors have not, over the past decade, demonstrably integrated transport planning and are yet to meet the Act’s requirements for the transport plan,” Mr Barry said.
“Since DoT’s establishment in 2019 though, it is evidently committed to realising these aims and is making steady progress towards them,” he said.
“However, DoT’s assertion that its 40 separate plans and strategies presently meet the Act’s integrated transport plan requirements does not withstand scrutiny.”
Mr Barry said the absence of a transport plan, during a decade of unprecedented funding for transport infrastructure, created risks of missed opportunities to optimise the benefits of the allocations to best meet Victoria’s transport needs.
The Acting Auditor-General said the documents DoT identified as comprising the transport plan did not fully meet legislative requirements or provide a coherent and comprehensive plan.
He said this was because the documents had been developed over a nine-year period and did not demonstrate how they were part of a collection that formed the transport plan; the collection was yet to include completed plans that addressed all areas of Victoria and all transport modes; modal plans were largely developed before, rather than after, area-based plans; and individual plans were highly varied in detail and focus.
Mr Barry made four recommendations to DoT, including that it clarify and publish a definitive list and explanation of the documents that contribute to the transport plan; establish completion timelines for all outstanding priority transport plans; ensure advice to ministers on the publication of plans conforms to the Act’s principles on transparency and integrated decision-making; and complete the Victoria’s Living Transport Network framework and underlying practice guidance.
The Acting Auditor-General’s 65-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
