Strategy summary
Infrastructure helps Victorians live prosperous, purposeful lives
Every Victorian depends on infrastructure. They use roads, paths or rail to reach work, study and services. They use public facilities and spaces to learn, play, exercise, socialise and receive care. And they depend on infrastructure to get energy and water to their homes, and to connect with each other by phone and internet.
We consulted Victorians on the infrastructure goals most important to them. They told us they want infrastructure to help them access opportunities and stay healthy and safe. They want it to help Victoria’s natural environment to thrive. And they want it to enable a more productive economy, minimise the ongoing effects of climate change and protect them from risks.
This updated 30-year infrastructure strategy provides recommendations to the Victorian Government to help achieve these goals. No single recommendation will address the hopes of all Victorians, nor can infrastructure solve all of Victoria’s challenges. But our recommendations aim to meet the infrastructure needs of current and future Victorians. When governments provide people with the infrastructure they need, communities can thrive and be more resilient.
We considered existing and new infrastructure in our recommendations
Our recommendations include infrastructure policies, reforms and projects that will bring long-term benefits.
Since the last version of this strategy in 2021, the Victorian Government has invested in major infrastructure projects. It has built new roads and rail, improved access to healthcare by building and upgrading hospitals, and separated trains from traffic by removing level crossings. We reviewed the recommendations in the 2021 strategy and found that the government has implemented or made progress on more than 80% of them.
Victoria already has a lot of high-quality infrastructure, including world-class cultural and sporting facilities. But there are areas where existing infrastructure does not meet Victoria’s needs, such as in social housing, public transport, and community infrastructure like libraries and aquatic centres.
To develop our recommendations, we researched the biggest challenges and opportunities facing Victoria’s infrastructure. We analysed these alongside existing government policy directions and recent developments to identify the infrastructure priorities where Victorian Government action is most needed to make a difference.
We released a draft version of this strategy in March 2025. We held an 8-week consultation and heard from communities and organisations across Victoria. We received over 300 written submissions on the draft strategy and over 2,500 individual points of feedback. We then refined and updated our recommendations.
Our recommendations respond to the immediate needs in Victoria’s largest cities and regional areas. They also identify ways to harness population growth and help the Victorian Government sustainably plan for the infrastructure that communities will need over the coming decades. Well-managed population growth can bring new skills into Victoria’s economy, enhance economic prosperity and make Victoria a better place to live.
Infrastructure can help to overcome Victoria’s future challenges
The Victorian Government will need to use its infrastructure to overcome some major challenges over the next 30 years. Victorians will need infrastructure to work in a warmer, drier climate and withstand more extreme weather events. And as Victoria’s population grows and changes, more Victorians will need to use many types of infrastructure. The shape of Victoria’s cities affects how quickly the government can provide this infrastructure. It is often more expensive to deliver infrastructure in new suburbs on the outskirts of Victoria’s cities, compared to upgrading existing infrastructure in established suburbs.
The Victorian Government has already set out some ambitious targets. It is investing in projects and changing policies to help achieve a target of 800,000 new homes by 2034. It has set energy targets of 95% renewable electricity generation by 2035. And it has a legislated target of net zero emissions by 2045.
Transitioning to renewable energy is critical for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But it is a major challenge for Victoria. Victoria will need to move quickly to achieve its targets, and the government will need to make large investments in partnership with the Australian Government and private investors.
However, the Victorian Government cannot build everything, everywhere, all at once. Rising debt levels and high material and labour costs make it more important than ever for governments in Australia to carefully prioritise and deliver new infrastructure. The government can find smarter and more efficient ways to use existing infrastructure and maintain its assets. This can help prioritise sustainability and equity in allocating and using resources. For example, the government can change public transport fares to encourage better use of the transport network, or use digital technologies to improve care and ease demand on public hospitals. Digital technologies can also improve productivity by helping the government better design, build, operate and maintain Victoria’s infrastructure.
This strategy is a foundation for action
Delivering the recommendations in this strategy will help to create a prosperous, more inclusive and sustainable Victoria over the next 30 years. The recommendations can help the government create a more productive economy in which people and businesses prosper. Public transport, roads and digital infrastructure help Victorians access well-paid jobs, services and other opportunities. Infrastructure helps businesses create the goods and services that drive economic growth and enables them to send goods across Victoria and beyond.
The government does not need to start implementing all our recommendations immediately. But our recommendations focus on actions the government can start in the next 5 years. The government can deliver many of these recommendations quickly and at low cost. Others can be delivered in stages. In some cases, delaying action will cost more in the long run. The Victorian Government can partner with local governments, the Australian Government, and the private and not-for-profit sectors to help fund and operate some of the infrastructure we recommend.
We estimate that the cost to the Victorian Government of implementing all 45 recommendations is around $65 billion to $75 billion. Around three quarters of this is attributable to a small group of capital-intensive projects to improve social housing, kindergartens, schools, public transport and hospitals. Long-term infrastructure planning can help achieve a stable investment profile. Our cost estimates allow the government to make informed decisions about infrastructure investment, project sequencing and delivery timelines.
The Victorian Government could reduce the costs of implementing the recommendations to around $60 billion by partnering with the Australian Government and other organisations, along with smarter use of existing government land. This $60 billion costing includes an average of approximately $5 billion of infrastructure spending by the Victorian Government each year for the next 10 years, and the rest afterwards. Our recommendations can generate over $166 billion worth of benefits and help achieve the strategy objectives.
Our 6 infrastructure strategy objectives reflect the goals that Victorians told us they value. Most recommendations advance more than one objective across different infrastructure sectors. Some recommendations focus on Victoria’s largest cities or regional towns, others apply statewide.
Infrastructure projects and policies are long-term investments. And yet the future is uncertain. Changes in demand and capacity will affect the types of infrastructure that Victorians need most. This strategy aims to meet this challenge by making recommendations that produce good results in different possible futures. These recommendations can help the Victorian Government make informed decisions about infrastructure investment. They focus on the outcomes that Victorians want and set out Victoria’s future infrastructure needs.
