Land transport is fundamental to the Australian economy, to the movement of people and goods, and to the delivery of services. With Australia’s population centres separated by long distances, the Commonwealth balances its investment in land transport infrastructure across Australia to deliver access to affordable and reliable transport. This extends to the freight network, as investment in safe and efficient land transport infrastructure is vital to freight movement, including key exports that support our competitiveness.

Achieving nationally significant investment policy priorities, like transitioning to a net-zero economy by 2050, while successfully delivering large transport infrastructure projects presents significant challenges. Achieving these objectives will require new commitments to integrated, long-term investment planning and streamlined administrative processes that enable clear decision-making in order to sequence and deliver infrastructure projects.

The Commonwealth has committed to a ten-year $120 billion pipeline of investment in land transport infrastructure. The majority of this spend is funded through the National Partnership Agreement on Land Transport Infrastructure Projects (NPA), augmented by joint investments with the States.

The existing NPA commenced on 1 July 2019 and will conclude on 30 June 2024. When the agreement commenced, the then government focused on delivering its priorities. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed the emphasis of spending and the flexibility of the NPA enabled rapid injection of stimulus to support employment. However, no plan was in place to wind back that spending in a timely way. In the last two years of the agreement, the focus has been on achieving a more sustainable and deliverable pipeline of investment, and on reforming arrangements that support this investment.

This review comes at a key inflection point in land transport infrastructure investment, and for the economy more broadly. It takes a substantially different approach to the review of the prior NPA conducted in 2018, which made no significant recommendations for changing the Commonwealth’s investment settings under the now current agreement.

Report structure:

• An assessment of the history, context and performance of the current NPA, including consideration of key issues raised in consultations,
• Recommendations for strengthening the upcoming FFAS and its supporting documentation, and updating other key regulatory and reference material, and
• A set of appendices that provide material to further explain the terms of this review and the key legislative and financial elements of the Commonwealth’s framework for making investments in land transport infrastructure.