Resilience outcomes now part and parcel of IA assessments

Infrastructure Australia’s revised Assessment Framework taking into account sustainability and resilience outcomes has been published.

The broadened assessment criteria will allow for a “more holistic review of a proposal’s potential benefits, in addition to those that can be monetised through traditional cost-benefit analysis”.

IA says the revisions respond to input from stakeholders, align with state and territory approaches, and build on the agency’s own research and experience from assessing infrastructure proposals.

Other key changes to the new edition include a clearer and transparent definition of what makes a proposal nationally significant, and standardised terminology.

The agency will stage a webinar to familiarise stakeholders with the changes in the 2021 edition, the implementation of which will be timed to account for whether submissions are at stages 1, 2 or 3.