6  Infrastructure maintenance

Most of the economic and social contribution that will be required of Australia's infrastructure between now and 2031 will have to come from existing infrastructure. Put another way, most of the infrastructure that Australians will use in 2031 has already been built.

At a minimum, our current infrastructure networks will need to support current levels of service. In many cases, they will need to deliver higher levels of service, and meet greater demand. This will only be possible if our infrastructure is properly maintained.

The Audit has assessed, at a high level, the maintenance regimes for each of the infrastructure sectors. This assessment shows that several sectors have appropriate systems in place to ensure infrastructure is properly maintained. However, in other sectors - particularly those more heavily dependent on government funding rather than user charging - maintenance regimes either are, or could become, inadequate.

It is clear that public policy settings need to ensure funding of infrastructure is focused on sustaining and protecting existing assets, just as much as it focuses on building new ones.

Underfunding of maintenance compromises the capacity of the infrastructure to deliver current and improved levels of service in the future. Moreover, underfunding of maintenance in the short to medium-term is likely to create larger and more difficult problems in the longer term.

The assessment also shows that maintaining infrastructure in rural and remote locations is generally more challenging than in the capital cities and larger regional centres.

A brief summary of the Audit's analysis of maintenance issues in each sector is set out below. More detail is available in a separate Audit research report on infrastructure maintenance.150

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150.  GHD (2014)