The Urban Developer
AdvertiseEventsWebinarsUrbanity
Industry Excellence
Urban Leader
Sign In
Membership
Latest
Menu
Location
Sector
Category
Content
Type
Newsletters
UPCOMING EVENT - INDUSTRIAL AND LOGISTICS SUMMIT 16 OCTOBER, SYDNEY
INDUSTRIAL AND LOGISTICS SUMMIT - TICKETS NOW ON SALE
LEARN MOREDETAILS
TheUrbanDeveloper
Follow
About
About Us
Membership
Awards
Events
Webinars
Listings
Resources
Terms & Conditions
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Republishing Guidelines
Editorial Charter
Complaints Handling Policy
Contact
General Enquiries
Advertise
Contribution Enquiry
Project Submission
Membership Enquiry
Newsletter
Stay up to date and with the latest news, projects, deals and features.
Subscribe
ADVERTISEMENT
SHARE
print
Print
OtherStaff WriterTue 10 Nov 15

Long-Term Infrastructure Plan Taking Shape

Cities took centre stage at Parliament House this week as Infrastructure Australia’s CEO, Philip Davies outlined the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Gathering under the auspices of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Better Cities, politicians from all points on the political spectrum, together with peak bodies and the private sector, heard from Australia’s top public sector infrastructure boss.

Mr Davies gave guests an insight into Infrastructure Australia’s policy work and the consultation process underpinning the development of Australia’s first ever 15-year national infrastructure plan.

Infrastructure Australia released the infrastructure audit in May this year, the first since its reconstitution as an independent body in 2014.

The audit provides a top-down national review of the key drivers of the nation’s infrastructure demand out to 2031, and future needs across transport, water, energy and telecommunications.

The headline finding is Australia’s projected population growth of 30.5 million by 2031, with three-quarters of this growth occurring in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

“By 2031, these four cities are expected to grow by 46 per cent,” Davies said, adding that Brisbane and Perth will be home to five million people apiece by 2061. Melbourne and Sydney will have up to nine million people each.

“We rank fourth out of 40 OECD countries for population growth over the decade to 2012 – and were the fastest of those with a population over 10 million,” Mr Davies said.

“Unsurprisingly, we also found that the cost of congestion was projected to grow to $53 billion per annum if we don’t continue to invest in our infrastructure.”

Housing affordability, already a great national challenge, will loom even larger in the years ahead, Mr Davies said.

“We forecast in the Audit that these big four cities will need to provide for the development of between 500,000 and 700,000 dwellings just in the next 15 years," he said.

“This new housing will need to be supported by the delivery of new and upgraded transport infrastructure to connect people to jobs and goods with markets.

“If we are to deal with this population growth, particularly in our cities, we will need to lift our game. We will need to plan for it and measure our outcomes if we are to be successful.”

Mr Davies, who is a trained engineer with experience delivering nationally-significant infrastructure projects, joined Infrastructure Australia in April. He said wide-ranging consultation with stakeholders found Australia’s largest cities need to be “growing up, not out”.

“Many have said that we need to increase delivery of high quality, high density development,” he explained.

Other stakeholders argued that governments needed to “ease the pressure on our larger cities by growing the populations of the smaller ones.

“And there is a strong view that we will need to consider a greater mix of high capacity public transport and active transport.”

While Mr Davies says each of these are important points, they cannot be undertaken in isolation.

“First and foremost we need to get back to long term infrastructure planning that is integrated with our land-use planning. We need a vision for our cities, detailing the outcomes we want to achieve and the appropriate measures to ensure we get there.”

Mr Davies said that Infrastructure Australia’s 15 year plan will outline “an ambitious infrastructure reform agenda across every economic infrastructure sector – helping Australia reap the many social and economic benefits of our population growth, and protect and enhance our quality of life.”

But he noted that responsibility for successfully implementing that plan was a collective one.

“A reform plan is only as good as the action that comes from it… And that responsibility for leading reform falls to us all…to governments, business, peak bodies and the wider community,”Mr  Davies concluded.

InfrastructureAustraliaPlanningPlanningOther
AUTHOR
Staff Writer
"TheUrbanDeveloper.com is committed to delivering the latest news, reviews, opinions and insights into the best of urban development from Australia and around the world. "
More articles by this author
ADVERTISEMENT
TOP STORIES
a land lease community home in white at a gemlife development, a type of home which could be the answer to the housing crisis
Residential

‘We are the Solution’: Land Lease Shake-Up Stirs into Life

Renee McKeown
5 Min
Korean coliving hero
Exclusive

Disconnection by Design: Why ‘Untech’ is the Next Big Amenity

Clare Burnett
5 Min
Global Shifts Redraw the Map for Australia’s Office Market
Exclusive

Office Eyes Slowdown as New Stock Supply Becomes a Trickle

Vanessa Croll
7 Min
Salta MD Sam Tarascio
Exclusive

Why Salta Won’t Break Ground on $400m Pipeline

Leon Della Bosca
7 Min
Exclusive

Precinct Proposals Bloom as Brisbane Middle-Ring Sheds its Past

Phil Bartsch
8 Min
View All >
Planning

Bipartisan NSW Planning Reform a Welcome Surprise

Patrick Lau
Darwin Sentinel Industrial East Arm Deal hero
Industrial

Sentinel Property Expands NT Portfolio with $57.4m Buy

Phil Bartsch
Legal

Court Freezes Assets as $160m Property Scheme Unravels

Vanessa Croll
From Main Beach apartments to Southport towers, projects are frozen while receivers trace investor funds and builder cla…
LATEST
Planning

Bipartisan NSW Planning Reform a Welcome Surprise

Patrick Lau
5 Min
Darwin Sentinel Industrial East Arm Deal hero
Industrial

Sentinel Property Expands NT Portfolio with $57.4m Buy

Phil Bartsch
2 Min
Legal

Court Freezes Assets as $160m Property Scheme Unravels

Vanessa Croll
2 Min
a land lease community home in white at a gemlife development, a type of home which could be the answer to the housing crisis
Residential

‘We are the Solution’: Land Lease Shake-Up Stirs into Life

Renee McKeown
5 Min
View All >
ADVERTISEMENT
Article originally posted at: https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/infrastructure-australia