Professional services firm WSP, has issued a statement on the 2026-27 Budget.
From an infrastructure and industry perspective, WSP understood the Budget backed business investment through more generous research and development incentives.
Funding to enable housing delivery would include enabling infrastructure such as water and sewerage services.
“Productivity gains will not come from new announcements alone, but from delivery certainty, institutional capability, and system‑wide coordination,” the company said.
The $21.1 million allocated over four years for water reform activities was called “modest” in lieu of the National Water Reform inquiry now underway by the Productivity Commission.
Charlie Jewkes, Managing Director of Water, Power & Energy at WSP, said water reform must be treated as core economic infrastructure reform.
“Productivity is the defining economic challenge for this Budget and water is part of that story. If we don’t get water settings right, we slow down housing, energy and industry at the same time.”
Jewkes said this is a starting point, noting key productivity gains will come from better coordination and clearer national leadership rather than major new capital programs.
“Right now, fragmented approaches to water policy and planning across jurisdictions are creating unnecessary cost and delay. That’s a productivity issue, not just a water issue,” Jewkes said.
“There are productivity gains available in water that don’t require major new spending. Better coordination, clearer policy signals and modern data systems can materially improve how decisions are made across the economy,” he added.
With few gestures provided for fiscal headroom in the Budget, WSP pointed to cost escalation, fragmented approvals and misalignment across generation, networks as demands increased execution risks.
This pushed further uncertainty into business cases and final investment decisions, elevating the need for earlier decisions and delivery confidence.
Felicity Galluzzo, Director of Power & Energy at WSP, said building confidence in delivery is critical to keep Australia’s energy transition on track.
“This Budget reinforces that energy remains a national priority, but with tight fiscal headroom, the margin for error on every project is shrinking,” she said.
Galluzzo said earlier, targeted investment can help governments and industry direct capital to projects that stand up to execution risk.
“We should be striving to push projects forward with confidence… committing to effective early investment, so decisions can be made sooner and capital is focused on projects that are genuinely deliverable,” Galluzzo said.
“By investing earlier in robust options analysis, better data and digital tools, and clearer integration between generation, transmission and demand, governments can move viable projects through final investment decision faster, with fewer surprises and stronger business cases for private capital.”
Among the key takeaways from the Budget, water reform was highlighted as a potential key productivity lever.
Despite remaining critical to essential enabling infrastructure water continued to sit largely outside the national productivity rhetoric according to WSP.
“While most water infrastructure investment occurs through states, territories and utilities, the Commonwealth shapes the national settings that determine how efficiently water supports communities and industry,” it stated in the media release.
“Fragmented governance, inconsistent planning frameworks and ageing national water information systems increasingly constrain decision‑making and delivery across sectors.”