With the latest Federal Budget release for 2021-22, there continues to be an intense focus on the infrastructure industry with another allocation of funding for our industry. 

The 2021-22 Budget released this week allocated an additional $15.2 billion in new commitments to focussing on infrastructure, roads and rail projects over a 10 year period. 

We touched on the NSW State Budget outcomes in November of last year, and the long term sustainability of pipeline work in our industry. The latest budget has again strengthened our industry and future supporting an additional 30,000 new jobs across Australia. See previous blog

There have been questions about the federal government having the ability to deliver on their promises of the massive Infrastructure Agenda. With the last year focussing on “shovel-ready” projects, this latest budget suggests a difficulty of spending on some of the more complex projects that are taken in partnership with the states and territories. 

With this in mind, this may also be the reason for the push in spending in infrastructure. Longer time frames on the complex, multi state and multi level government projects may explain why the 10 year infrastructure budget has only increased by $10bn. 

Since the last year's Budget release the government has already underspent $1.2bn, with the figures showing that over the past 5 federal budgets that is a total of $4.4bn. 

So what does this all mean for Hanlons, and the Australian Surveying and Engineering industry as a whole? 

Well, once again, we can anticipate that the level of funding will see a boost in the projects available for the foreseeable future. There is also confidence in our industry that has led to an employment boom. 

This does not come without hurdles, with limited trained or experienced Surveyors and Engineers in Australia. With Surveying graduates in high demand, both in the city and country areas, the data shows 95% of students are finding work within four months after graduating. We still need to push for better school based programs to encourage interest in our careers, in turn to assist with the boom in our industry. 

Our industry is growing, moving and learning, with some of the biggest technological advances directly encouraging our advancement and timelines.
Bring on the next 10 years!