Australia’s infrastructure crossroads: Can we build better with less?

After a decade of record capital infrastructure spending, state and territory governments are grappling with tighter fiscal conditions and higher interest rates. The economic reality is clear: the need for infrastructure will continue to escalate, despite limited funding. The challenge will be in how we continue to invest in and deliver the infrastructure that underpins community wellbeing, with decreased expenditure and increased efficiency. 

The pipeline of planned infrastructure remains extensive, while governments are finding themselves unable to deliver these projects as envisioned due to budget constraints and a culture of risk aversion. However, these challenges present a unique opportunity for us to rethink how we plan, design, and execute infrastructure, while keeping community benefits at the forefront of decision making. 

Fundamentally, infrastructure underpins community welfare and wellbeing, and the backlog of built environment needs will still be there - irrespective of whether funding is available to complete them or not. Infrastructure like roads, hospitals, power grids and telecommunications form the backbone of our modern lives. When you strip away the ability to turn on a light, drive to work, or connect to a mobile network, you quickly understand how infrastructure shapes our happiness, productivity, and wellbeing.

That is why continued infrastructure investment must remain a national priority, even in times of fiscal restraint. Not only does infrastructure enable daily function, but improvements—like hospital upgrades or better road networks—also deliver tangible enhancements to quality of life. Though often taken for granted, the link between infrastructure and community benefit is foundational to our base needs. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has flagged productivity as a core focus for the next phase of Australia’s economic agenda. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the infrastructure and construction sectors, which have faced declining productivity for years. 

To maximise public value, we must pursue two parallel strategies. First, prioritise infrastructure investment that focuses on better design to deliver the greatest community benefit with low economic cost. Second, deliver projects more efficiently, by rethinking delivery models, embracing innovation and focusing on effective project management.

Most infrastructure projects today cost more and take longer than expected. Modern infrastructure over the last century has demonstrated that we have sound technical design, but we continue to fall short in effective delivery, a project phase often marked by chaos and ballooning costs. Repeating the same approach and expecting different outcomes is no longer tenable. 

Technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), digital twins, and advanced project data analytics can help streamline design and construction, improve collaboration and reduce errors. Off-site modular construction, where components are created in controlled factory settings also help to improve precision, reduce waste, and speed up delivery. Though these tools and frameworks are readily available and have been in the sector conversation for a decade, they continue to remain underutilised.

As an example, the increasing trend to constructing vertical schools demonstrates a shift towards flexible thinking and in many cases innovative design practice. These multi-level educational facilities can help to address urban density challenges with limited land use. With the right planning and design, full amenity can be delivered within a smaller land footprint, promoting compact design that is cost effective and community focused.

A significant barrier to innovation isn’t technical but rather can be promises on completion dates that do not reflect the time it takes to solve complex challenges through design, and public sector delivery systems that often hinder or even punish creative approaches that are deemed risky and reward safe, conservative repetition. 

An increasingly popular approach for governments is to provide initial funding for preliminary design to support a business case that is reasonably advanced in terms of scope, cost and program. This means decisions on the infrastructure project can be based upon a more mature understanding of legitimate requirements, leading to political promises that are grounded on the reality of project delivery – rather than back of the envelope estimates. 

Private sector firms like GHD have a critical role to play. As specialists who work on infrastructure projects every day, we bring deep technical knowledge, broad international experience that can help unlock bold, creative approaches, together with expertise in project management and business case development. 

Also worth consideration is a maturation of the relationship between government and industry. Collaborative contracting models, early contractor involvement, and shared accountability and risk can be viable options to enable this shift.

Finally, we must recognise that who plans, designs and builds our infrastructure matters. The sector remains male-dominated, and while change is occurring, progress is slow. A broader range of voices leads to better ideas, richer problem-solving and infrastructure that better reflects the communities it serves. Diversity of gender, culture, and experience must be embedded not only in our workforce but also in the way we design, engage and deliver.

Australia’s infrastructure sector is at a crossroads. Fiscal pressures and growing infrastructure needs are key challenges for the sector, but they also present opportunities to embed innovation and centre design around the communities it serves. When we overcome these challenges, we won’t just be building differently, we’ll be building better.