CONCLUSION
The 2021 Australian Infrastructure Investment Report explores the changing investment environment as Australia emerges from a pandemic-induced recession. Australia’s mature and stable market has maintained investor confidence and it continues to be a leading destination for investment. Between COVID-19 changing the playing field for investment and competition for assets, investors are broadening their definitions of infrastructure and accepting more risk by taking on coreplus assets. However, investors face a range of growing challenges, chief among them a lack of investment opportunities. Australia’s market has grown increasingly crowded, with some investors indicating a hesitancy to overcommit to the cost and complexity of bidding, or wary of overcommitting to mega-projects. Capacity constraints
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also continue to challenge the sector, and government interventions, especially in the energy sector, continue to drive policy and regulatory uncertainty. This year, investors identified a marked increase in the importance of ESG and social licence for investment portfolios and asset types. Renewable energy and telecommunications assets are viewed by investors as appealing, with participants explaining that COVID-19 has accelerated an already inevitable trend toward these assets. There is an opportunity for governments to capitalise on the moment created by record public investments in infrastructure to re-establish Australia as a world-class destination for infrastructure investment. Stronger policy leadership to assert Australia’s environmental and social credentials, a recommitment to key market principles of competition and limited intervention, coupled with a push to bring more deals to market, will see investors lining up to support the domestic market. But further inaction could see Australia fall behind other regions – most particularly the EU and the US.
Australian Infrastructure Investment Report 2021
