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Research - AUGUST 14, 2019

Australia needs to spend A$600b on infrastructure to keep up

by Kali Persall

Australia will need to spend A$600 billion ($406 billion) on infrastructure over the next 15 years in order to counter demand caused by population growth in major Australian cities, a new audit by Infrastructure Australia has revealed.

The population of the country is expected to reach 31.4 million in 15 years, a 23.7 percent increase, with most of the growth coming from Australia’s four largest cities — Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, The Guardian reported.

Aging assets, increasing road congestion and crowded public transportation are also rising issues that Australia will need to spend about A$40 billion ($27 billion) a year to combat.

Romilly Madew, head of Infrastructure Australia, says spending on infrastructure projects like maintenance rolling stock and enabling electric vehicles could also help stimulate the economy through infrastructure spending.

“On the infrastructure priority list there are already 103 initiatives sitting there that have been identified by the states and territories, and that means there is a pipeline of infrastructure that has been identified that could go,” said Madew.

To read more about the audit, click here.

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