In the 2019 Audit, Infrastructure Australia highlighted the challenges facing Australia's efforts to plan, deliver and operate infrastructure.
We also identified some emerging opportunities.
Addressing these major issues has been a priority when developing the 2021 Plan:
• There is an opaque, inconsistent approach to funding and maintenance. It varies according to transport mode and location.
• Freight network performance varies by location, geography and season. Australia has world-leading mineral supply chains, while urban and agricultural supply chains face challenges.
• Regional supply chains are diverse. While freight infrastructure investments can catalyse regional development, it is difficult for governments to provide sufficient infrastructure to accommodate agriculture's seasonal flows.
• Efficient supply chain operations are constrained in cities. This is due to poorly coordinated land use and transport planning, network congestion and the growth of business- to-customer freight activity (such as delivery vans). This has a particularly severe impact on international supply chains.
• Domestic supply chains suffer from inefficient or inconsistent regulatory regimes. There has not been enough digital innovation to support more streamlined practices and improve road safety outcomes.
• There is a high reliance on private vehicle use for personal mobility. This adds to the growing cost of road congestion, which cannot be efficiently relieved through the continued expansion of road capacity.
• Urban travel patterns are becoming more complex with the growth of cities and changes in lifestyles. This makes it harder for scheduled public transport services to compete with driving.
• Access to passenger transport services is unequal. Lower-income households, people with disability, older Australians and those living in rural and remote Australia and outer-urban areas are disadvantaged. The transport sector must work harder to promote social inclusion.
• Active travel infrastructure needs more funding. Whether they are urban cycleways or parks and lakeside trails, there needs to be more investment in defined places to walk or cycle if active travel is to rise above levels that remain low by global standards in most areas.
• Australia is falling behind its global peers in the abatement of transport emissions. The public sector has not yet fully embraced its role in leading change and enabling the large number of Australian users who want to make the move to take up low- and zero-emission motoring.