Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Amendment Bill 2026

Ms CHANEY (Curtin) (16:47): I just have a question for the minister about the investment mandate and return expectations for the NAIF and other SIVs. The NAIF plays a really important part in our decarbonisation journey, and I support it. I've heard some concerns from the clean energy industry about the risk appetite built into the investment mandate and that return expectations that are set near commercial levels can cause SIVs like the NAIF to compete with private capital for low-risk projects rather than catalysing investment in high-public-benefit, long-term decarbonisation projects.

If public money is replacing private capital, then it's not a good use of public money, and SIVs should operate where there's market failure, not where markets could efficiently deliver the same result. My question is, how is the minister ensuring that public money will be used in the NAIF early enough to crowd in public private funds rather than replace them?