If you don't know who Warren Truss is, you're forgiven. In an age of hyperactive, ego-driven politicians, he is a relic from an earlier age, an honest, unassuming Queensland grain grower who happens to be leader of the National Party, after spending 10 years as a Howard government minister without putting a foot seriously wrong.

If the Coalition wins the coming election, he would be Australia's deputy prime minister. He would also be the minister for infrastructure, and last week in that role he announced that a Coalition government would restructure Infrastructure Australia, the advisory body on infrastructure priorities, and commission it to carry out, with the states, a detailed audit of the state of Australia's infrastructure assets - and come up with a 15-year plan of priorities to improve it.

Warren Truss, leader of the National Party. Credit:Graham Tidy

Importantly, Truss also pledged: ''The Coalition will require any and all Commonwealth infrastructure expenditure exceeding $100 million to be subject to analysis by Infrastructure Australia to test cost-effectiveness and financial viability … The Coalition will also require Infrastructure Australia to routinely publish public cost-benefit analyses for all projects being considered for Commonwealth support or investment.''

The restructure appears to be aimed at putting a Coalition loyalist in charge, but the rest are welcome commitments. It makes sense to have a long-term federal-state plan for infrastructure priorities - although in practice, sadly, priorities change when power changes, and it is hard to see politics being shut out when priorities are decided.