Infrastructure

Advocacy priorities:

• State and Federal funding increases to support local infrastructure projects.
• Additional funding provided to address ageing infrastructure needs across the region.
• More sustainable funding mechanisms for local government infrastructure and assets to combat growth.

The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (IPWEA) estimates it will cost $51 billion to replace poor infrastructure and longer term, $106-$138 billion to replace infrastructure currently in fair condition. IPWEA concludes that an infrastructure renewal gap is prevalent, that is, assets are deteriorating faster than Councils can fund maintenance and/or renewal works for.

Financial constraints on Councils and the need to reduce spend on asset maintenance will lead to a reduction of community infrastructure. 

M9 Councils manage a combined $15 billion worth of essential municipal and community assets. Typically, asset repair and renewal is considerably more costly than building new infrastructure.

The asset management challenge becomes more pronounced when taking into account the surging costs of infrastructure delivery and construction. 

M9 would like to see a shift in State and Federal funding, from backing new infrastructure projects to providing more support for existing asset renewals and upgrades.