Property & Infrastructure

The Government has unveiled a raft of new investment funds, which will act as seed funding for future expenditures. The investment income from these funds will be used to finance future spending rather than financing the spending now using debt.

Housing Fund.

• $10 billion will be invested in the Housing Australia Future Fund to generate returns to fund the delivery of 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years and allocate
  $330 million for acute housing need.
• In the first five years, investment returns will be used to fund repairs and maintenance for remote indigenous communities, crisis and transitional housing options for women and children fleeing domestic violence and homelessness and to build more housing for veterans experiencing homelessness.

Rewiring Australia Fund.

• $20 billion will be provided to establish ‘Rewiring the Nation’ to expand and modernise the electricity grid, unlock new renewables and drive down power prices.
• Funding will be used to provide concessional loans and equity to invest in transmission infrastructure projects that will help strengthen, grow and transition the electricity grid.
• The policy will have a net positive impact of $158.1 million on the underlying cash balance over the forward estimates as interest revenue on investments is expected to offset spending measures.

Powering the Regions Fund.

• The Government will establish the Powering the Regions Fund with $1.9 billion allocated from the uncommitted funding from alternative funds.
• Initial funding includes $5.9 million to support reforms to assist industries with the transition to net zero and $3.3 million for further design and development of the Powering the Regions Fund.

Electric vehicle and hydrogen refuelling.

As part of its Driving the Nation Fund, the Government will commit:

• $146.1m over 5 years from 2023-24 for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to co-invest in projects to reduce emissions from Australia’s road transport sector
• $89.5m over 6 years from 2022-23 for the Hydrogen Highways initiative to fund the creation of hydrogen refuelling stations on Australia’s busiest freight routes, in partnership with states and territories, including $5.5m to LINE Hydrogen Pty Ltd for its George Town green hydrogen heavy transport project
• $39.8m over 5 years from 2022-23 to establish a National Electric Vehicle Charging Network to deliver 117 fast charging stations on highways across Australia, in partnership with the NRMA.

Infrastructure projects