LGA welcomes Coalition commitment to invest in local communities

The Coalition has pledged to immediately increase the Roads to Recovery program to $1 billion per year from 2025–26, bringing forward the phased increases announced in last month’s Federal Budget.

This represents an additional $250 million for councils next year and beyond to upgrade and maintain local roads.

It follows the Opposition's earlier announcement that it would reinstate the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program, which was scrapped in 2023, with $500 million per year for community infrastructure and $500 million for regional road upgrades.

Funding for the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program would be delivered to councils through two streams, each worth $500 million:

• Resilience and community infrastructure – open to all councils, this stream will help strengthen communities against natural disasters and fund essential infrastructure to support local growth.
• Road upgrades – targeted to regional councils, this stream would help to fix potholes, maintain and improve local roads.

The investment directly responds to two key federal election asks put forward by our national local government body ALGA, which LGA South Australia supports.

LGA Chief Executive Officer Clinton Jury said the combined funding would support local councils to build, maintain and upgrade libraries, recreation centres, playgrounds, skate parks, bike paths and roads across the state.

“The Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program delivered almost $1 billion to improve our roads and community facilities during the three years it was in operation,” Mr Jury said.

“This made a significant, positive impact on our neighbourhoods by uplifting our regional roads – making them safer for everyone – and providing crucial funding for councils to put toward key infrastructure that builds stronger communities.

"Equally, the announcement of additional funding for the Roads to Recovery program is one of the most effective ways of getting funding to councils quickly and equitably, and this funding boost to $1 billion annually from next year is very welcome.

“One of the standout features of these programs is the funding is non-competitive, formula-based, which enables councils to work directly with their communities to ensure funding is spent where it is needed most, which delivers the biggest bang for buck.

“We welcome the Coalition’s announcement and we're now calling on the Labor Government to do likewise and commit to helping our councils deliver safer roads and more liveable communities for all South Australians."

2025 federal election asks

Ahead of the federal election, LGA South Australia is supporting national ’s calls for $3.5 billion of funding through five new formula-based, non-competitive funding programs for all councils.

This includes:

• $1.1 billion per year for enabling infrastructure to unlock housing supply
• $500 million per year for community infrastructure
• $600 million per year for safer local roads
• $900 million per year for increased local government emergency management capability and
• capacity
• $400 million per year for climate adaptation.

We've also highlighted several South Australia specific asks as part of our 2025 federal election campaign SA’s Future Starts Local, focusing on fairer funding and greater investment in emergency management, climate and coastal adaptation, and product stewardship.

Read more about LGA's Federal Election Platform - SA's Future Starts Local.