Maintenance and resilience are major themes in the Audit. Most of the infrastructure that Australians will use in 2031 has already been built, but maintenance standards are often below par. There is evidence that regional and rural roads, for example, are less well maintained than roads in urban areas, and that water supply service levels in some towns are at risk of deteriorating without greater investment in maintenance.
Service providers will need to improve whole-of-life asset management processes, including adequate long-term funding strategies, to ensure infrastructure networks are able to provide reasonable levels of service in the future.