Climate change is making natural disasters more frequent and more intense, increasing costs for households, businesses and governments. This includes local governments, which are responsible for community infrastructure and facilities. This paper makes the point that the costs of climate change in Australia are increasing rapidly, while local government revenues are growing far more slowly.

This report addresses the challenge that low traffic volumes in remote and regional areas make it difficult for traditional cost-benefit analysis methods to support road improvements in these areas in line with community expectations and government policy objectives. It develops ways to improve the efficiency, equity and transparency of decision-making for road funding in these...

This report warns that many of Aotearoa New Zealand's mounting infrastructure challenges stem from a preventable lack of basic upkeep of assets. It calls for fundamental changes, including ring-fencing renewal funding, increasing transparency and ensuring infrastructure investment decisions consider full asset lifecycles rather than just upfront costs.

The Disaster Ready Fund (DRF), administered by the National Emergency Management Agency, is the Australian Government's flagship disaster resilience and risk reduction initiative. This performance audit was conducted to provide assurance about whether the award of DRF funding is effective and consistent with the guidelines. It makes six recommendations for improvement.

Policymakers need to recognise the importance of privately owned social infrastructure and the willingness of many in the private sector to deliver community space. By broadening our understanding of the agents responsible for social infrastructure and highlighting creative approaches to its provision, the report's authors hope to encourage a new model of social infrastructure delivery...