Australian Infrastructure Budget Monitor 2017-18

Analysis

Figure 1: 2017-18 Australian infrastructure funding levels, ranked by share of budget expenditure

*The Commonwealth Government primarily funds state infrastructure projects. As such it is not formally included in the rankings. We include it in the report to provide a comprehensive view of funding commitments.
Source: Infrastructure Partnerships Australia calculations, based on 2017-18 budgets.

NSW wins a solid first place – dedicating 14.29 per cent of its Budget to infrastructure – worth $49.65 billion, over four years.

ACT comes an impressive second – with 13.46 per cent of the Territory’s Budget funding put towards infrastructure; worth (a more modest) $3.24 billion, in monetary terms.

Victoria ranks third, with 12.54 per cent of of its Budget – worth $32.84 billion, committed to infrastructure.

Queensland comes fourth with 11.11 per cent of its Budget dedicated to infrastructure funding, which is worth $26.73 billion over four years.

WA ranks last in this year’s rankings, with $8.86 billion in infrastructure funding over four years to FY2020/21 making up just 6.98 per cent of its Budget. The declining trend in infrastructure funding reflects the WA Government’s fiscal challenges and a similar policy position to Queensland of prohibiting asset recycling.

Insights

• Together, NSW and Victoria field 61.9 per cent of Australian infrastructure funding activity.
• General Government infrastructure funding totals over $133 billion across all jurisdictions.
• NSW, Victoria, Queensland, NT and Tasmania have increased infrastructure funding by a combined total of $10.26 billion over the forward estimates.
• WA, SA, ACT and the Commonwealth have decreased infrastructure funding by a combined total of $6.78 billion over the forward estimates.

Figure 2: Who’s funding what? National infrastructure funding, share of total, by jurisdiction (FY2018-19 to FY2021-22)

Source: Infrastructure Partnerships Australia analysis