National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (Nista) CEO Becky Wood marks the body’s first year by stressing its role in setting long-term, cross-sector infrastructure priorities and giving earlier, clearer signals to project promoters. She points to Nista’s statutory remit to advise on nationally significant schemes and its work to align major rail, road and energy investments with a single pipeline. For consultants and contractors, this signals more emphasis on whole-life value, standardised business cases and earlier engagement on scheme scope and risk.

Ground Data for Growth Bill proposes mandatory sharing and standardisation of subsurface investigation data, turning borehole logs, CPT results and geophysical surveys from individual project assets into a national digital resource. By reducing duplicated ground investigations and improving access to historic GI records, the bill aims to cut early-stage geotechnical uncertainty, programme risk and contingency allowances on major schemes such as HS2-scale corridors and urban tunnelling. For practitioners, this signals stronger emphasis on interoperable formats, metadata quality and long-term stewardship of ground models.

Australia’s Federal Parliament has passed legislation to create a national strategic reserve for critical minerals and fuels, formalising government powers to stockpile commodities such as lithium, rare earths and diesel. The laws enable the Commonwealth to acquire, store and release these materials to manage supply disruptions, with storage expected across multiple secure facilities rather than a single central depot. For miners and processors, the framework signals stronger federal backing for domestic offtake, long-term contracts and potential co‑investment in downstream refining capacity.