Imagine the meeting.

A team arrives with a brilliant infrastructure idea.

Good engineers.

Beautiful drawings.

Some very expensive lawyers wearing 5.000 suits… so that you know well where your money is going…

They may even have intellectual property.

Actual IP.

Something more substantial than putting “proprietary” in the footer.

The project will reduce congestion, create jobs and transform the economy.

Of course.

Nobody has ever arrived at a minister’s office promising to make traffic worse.

Then someone asks a slightly inconvenient question.

“What exactly do you need from the Government?”

“We need support.”

Wonderful.

Emotional support?

A pat in the back?

References for a psychologist?

An aircraft carrier in your coast?

A piece of land?

$500 million?

$1 billion?

“A guarantee that taxpayers will pay if your customers don’t”

Quite a lot for “support”.

Let’s go to Sydney.

NorthConnex.

An unsolicited proposal for a motorway tunnel connecting the M1 and M2.

The funding package included toll revenue and announced contributions of up to A$405 million each from the NSW and Australian Governments. The wider deal also included extending the M7 concession to June 2048.

Pause there.

Cuidadito.

Despacito.

The public contribution went beyond a cheque.

Additional years of tolling have economic value.

Someone pays.

Sometimes at the toll gantry, long after the minister who approved the deal has retired.

My unsolicited advice of the day…

A serious proposal needs to put the commercial bargain on the table.

Here is the infrastructure.

Here is the money.

Here is how investors and lenders get paid.

And here is exactly what we need the Government to contribute, authorise or accept.

You can then assess whether that bargain is worth making.

Which is a rather different conversation from admiring a tunnel rendering.

Now…

Having a financing structure does not automatically make a proposal good value.

You can finance a bad deal very successfully.

But without a credible financing pathway and a defined government ask, what exactly are you asking officials to recommend?

“Minister, the engineering looks excellent. We will discover your exposure later.”

Good luck signing that briefing.

If you are sponsoring a market-led proposal, your team should be able to explain who could provide the equity and debt, what discussions have actually happened, and which conditions still need to be satisfied.

“Investors are interested” needs a little more detail… dear friends at Queenstown.

Interested in reviewing the project?

Or interested if the Government guarantees everything?

Small difference.

But important difference.

You also need to explain who ultimately pays.

Users?

Taxpayers?

A public agency through a long-term service contract?

A combination?

Then define the public intervention.

What do you need?

Why is it necessary?

What does the Government receive in return?

And where does its exposure stop?

Put boundaries around the amount, duration and triggers.

Explain what happens if construction costs rise, demand disappoints or financing falls through.

Especially who carries the loss.

And remember… dear lawyers… a capped contribution means very little if another clause quietly sends the downside back to the taxpayer.

You do not need fully committed financing at the first meeting.

You do need a credible route to it, with the assumptions and dependencies visible.

Your IP may help explain why the Government should speak to you.

Your financing pathway helps explain whether you can deliver.

Your government ask tells the person across the table what they would actually be saying yes to.

Before your next submission, ask your team to write that ask on one page.

The intervention.

The reason.

The limits.

The risks that remain with you.

If they cannot, I would postpone the ministerial meeting.

Much cheaper to discover that problem in your own boardroom.

If you need a hand, you can contact me below.

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