Support a better quality of life by aligning funding and minimum standards with principles for sustainable infrastructure delivery in Small Towns, Rural Communities and Remote Areas.
- Connected regions
- Regionalised Australia
Key messages
Infrastructure is more expensive to provide on a per-person basis in low population areas, but these communities are also more reliant on available infrastructure for their productivity and wellbeing.
Meeting the infrastructure needs of smaller communities is often difficult, and some Small Towns and Rural Communities face significant infrastructure deficits.
Infrastructure investments for Small Towns, Rural Communities and Remote Areas should plan for, and respond to, population change in these communities and be underpinned by a shared vision for their long-term future.
There are opportunities to share resources, skills and facilities between communities, and between smaller communities and larger metropolitan centres, to reduce costs, improve access and better coordinate infrastructure delivery.
What are the impacts?
Defining and adopting minimum standards to guide infrastructure investment decisions will improve road access and communications services to small towns, rural communities and remote areas.
Regional Deals and regional economic development strategies improve governance and support sustainable population and economic growth. Regional partnerships will also improve health and social outcomes by increasing investment and productivity gains to drive employment.
Ensuring Community Service Obligations (CSOs) deliver the promised benefits supports a higher quality of life and addresses social disadvantage.
How easy is it to implement?
Improved design of CSOs may reduce the cost of delivering services, however overall the reform should be cost-neutral. However, the scale and breadth of reform will increase implementation complexity. Changes to CSOs to improve minimum standards may also require legislative change.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts organisations have demonstrated a strong demand for visual arts but not always the infrastructure to capitalise on the opportunity. Collaboration with industry and place-based organisations may increase capacity of service provision.
How certain are the outcomes?
The pandemic has accelerated decentralisation, placing greater demand on small towns. Improving reporting against minimum standards would building community confidence that ongoing basic infrastructure needs are supported.
Community acceptance of changes to CSO agreements may depend on their scale and the extent to which competition exists in their delivery.
Government has limited control over implementing the reform. While government would initiate and set the terms of reference, there is uncertainty around realising the benefits due to reliance on private operators to deliver the projects
| Access |
Infrastructure minimum standards reporting
|
| Quality |
Localised Community Service Obligations
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| Affordability |
Community Service Obligation contestability
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Read more about this recommendation in 1.3 Lifting access in Small Cities, Rural Communities and Remote Areas in the 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan.
Reform implementation pathway
This recommendation comprises of outcomes and activities, which form the reform's implementation pathway.
The implementation pathway is designed to guide change agents on the supporting activities necessary to achieve the overall reform.
For each outcome and activity, we propose change agents to act as:
- Proposed sponsor: facilitate, coordinate and champion the recommendation
- Proposed lead: deliver specific activities or lead related outcomes
- Support: share ownership, contributions or knowledge to enable the reform process.
Ensure communities in Small Towns, Rural Communities and Remote Areas have access to infrastructure services in line with defined minimum standards.
5-10 years
Based on community size, demographics and location, define minimum standards across economic infrastructure sectors (transport, energy, water, telecommunications and waste).
0-5 years
Based on community size, demographics and location, define minimum standards across social infrastructure.
5-10 years
Manage potential future population and economic growth by developing staged land use plans that accommodate infrastructure and land use requirements.
5-10 years
Identify demand pressures by monitoring and forecasting population and service density for infrastructure services for small towns.
5-10 years
Ensure nationally consistent governance arrangements for municipal services in remote areas by including the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the South Australian Government’s Municipal Services (MUNS) program.
0-5 years
Improve the transparency and effectiveness of Community Service Obligations by redesigning them to include robust criteria, be cost-neutral and reflect community priorities.
5-10 years
To ensure Community Service Obligations are delivering public value, establish an interdepartmental taskforce to review their performance and identify potential improvements.
0-5 years
Improve understanding of costs and benefits of Community Service Obligations through mandatory public reporting on their performance.
0-5 years
Ensure assets are culturally responsive and will be well-utilised by undertaking service design for Community Service Obligations in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
5-10 years
Facilitate sharing of infrastructure services and resources between communities and individuals by enabling the sharing economy.
0-5 years
Ensure infrastructure assets in small towns, rural communities and remote areas are understood and used by incorporating them in the Digital Atlas of Australia.
0-5 years
Support service provision and sharing of Community Service Obligation benefits by integrating their funding arrangements with place-centric asset-sharing platforms tailored to Small Towns, Rural Communities and Remote Areas.
5-10 years
Provide services efficiently by optimising investment in built assets and social infrastructure through developing integrated infrastructure strategies across governments.
0-5 years