Australia’s concrete industry has called for action to improve freight efficiency, secure access to heavy construction materials and support industry decarbonisation in the upcoming federal budget.

Heavy construction materials industry lobby group Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia (CCAA) has released its Pre-Budget Submission for 2026/27.

In its submission, CCAA has called for fourteen actions across three areas.

These include:

• Improving heavy vehicle access by providing funding to incentivise jurisdictions to allow greater use of Performance Based Standards (PBS) vehicles and to complete preparations for the National Automated Access System.
• Ensuring that planning delays and urban development do not threaten access to quarries and concrete batching plants by providing financial incentives for states and territories to develop heavy construction material plans, ensuring that incentive payments for zoning reform do not interfere with access to quarrying or cement batching sites and funding an audit of environmental regulations which impact the heavy construction material sector.
• Supporting industry decarbonisation by transitioning to performance based standards for cement and concrete, introducing a new grant or support scheme to assist industry to prepare Environmental Product Declarations and introducing a time-limited production credit for low carbon concrete.

The submission release comes as pre-budget submissions for the upcoming Commonwealth Budget in May closed last week.

Last year, 860 non-confidential submissions were received.

The release also comes as heavy construction materials are set to play an important role in delivering Australia’s housing and infrastructure pipeline over coming years.

Better road access

As mentioned above, the CCAA submission focused on three areas.

First, it would like funding to improve heavy vehicle access on Australia’s road network.

On this score, it calls for three actions.

First, CCAA would like the Australian Government to provide financial incentives to encourage jurisdictions to permit greater use of Performance Based Standards (PBS) vehicles on Australia’s transport network.

PBS vehicles are vehicles which have been designed for specific freight tasks and are engineered to meet higher performance and safety standards.

An example is trucks which have been specially configured to carry concrete or quarry products.

According to CCAA, more extensive use of PBS vehicles could facilitate greater loads and fewer trips.

This would deliver better productivity, reduced impact on road infrastructure, improved safety and lower carbon emissions.

For a variety of reasons outlined in its submission, however, CCAA says that obtaining permission to operate PBS-approved trucks on suitable roads is slow and restrictive.

Next, CCAA would like the Australian Government to provide funding to ensure that the National Automated Access System (NAAS) is able to commence operations during the life of the current Parliament.

Currently in development, the NAAS system will provide a one-stop automated platform that will handle the vast majority (around 90 percent) of heavy vehicle access permits.

Once operational, the new system is expected to deliver greater speed, consistency and transparency in road access approval decisions and will avoid the need for road managers to manually process consent applications.

As things stand however, the rollout of the system has experienced delays and remains at a proof-of-concept stage.

Third, CCAA would like funding to advance the development and adoption of a suitable user-pays model for road charging.

Around Australia, there is an ongoing push to transition to a user-pays model to pay for road network maintenance as revenue from fuel excise duties is expected to decline with greater uptake of electric cars and trucks.

In terms of heavy vehicles, a pilot program has been testing ways through which these could be charged according to weight and distance. (The system uses telematics for data collection.)

Meanwhile, the National Transport Commission is consulting on a forward-looking cost base for heavy vehicle charges as an alternative to the current PAYGO system.

In the budget, CCAA would like funding to conclude these two programs. This would enable the adoption of an appropriate model for road user charging as soon as possible.

Preserve access to quarries and batches

Second, CCAA would like action to ensure that planning delays and urban development do not threaten access to quarries and concrete batching plants.

In this area, CCAA says that the heavy construction materials sector faces several challenges.

These include lengthy and complex approvals for new quarries or plant upgrades, urban encroachment on resources and sites, a rise in planning disputes and appeals in relation to new quarry expansions or batching pads and logistics bottlenecks in terms of critical ports and road corridors.

It says that a particularly concerning trend is that quarries and batch plants are being pushed progressively further away from the growth areas they supply.

In response, CCAA would like the Commonwealth to provide financial incentives for states and territories to develop plans to secure the long-term supply of heavy construction materials such as cement, concrete and aggregates.

It would also like the Australian Government to ensure that National Competition Policy incentive payments for zoning reform do not inhibit access to quarrying and cement batching sites.

Finally, it would like the Australian Government to fund a comprehensive audit and harmonisation of environmental regulations which impact the heavy construction materials sector.

Help with decarbonisation

Finally, CCAA is calling for four actions to assist the heavy material construction industry to advance its decarbonisation efforts.

These include:

• Transitioning Australian standards and project procurement requirements away from prescriptive requirements and toward broader requirements which are based around performance (such as an allowable carbon footprint per unit of concrete or specific outcomes in respect of durability and strength). In particular, CCAA would like the main Australian standard relating to cement to be updated to allow greater use of low-carbon materials.
• Establishment of a national grant or support scheme to assist cement and concrete producers to develop, verify and publish Environmental Product Declarations. These are internationally recognised, standardised documents which provide transparent and verified data on the environmental impact of a product such as a cubic meter of concrete or a tonne of cement across the product lifecycle. They enable the environmental impact of different materials to be assessed and compared on a like-for-like basis.
• A time-limited production credit for low-carbon concrete projects, such as a tax credit or rebate. This would operate in a similar manner to the existing New Green Aluminium Product Credit that will be available in respect of aluminium products from 2028/29. Such a credit, CCCA argues, would help to overcome a cost premium challenge which is faced by early adopters of innovative and sustainable products. It could help to unlock potential for new lower carbon content products such as cements with novel chemistries, concretes incorporating carbon capture, or mixes using higher recycled content.

In a statement, CCAA Chief Executive Officer Michael Kilgariff said that the importance of the proposed actions should not be underestimated.

“Australia cannot build more homes or deliver major infrastructure without reliable access to cement, concrete and aggregates,” he said.

“Our submission makes it clear that productivity is being constrained by slow heavy vehicle access, fragmented planning systems and growing barriers to quarry and batching plant approvals …”

“… These are practical, near-term actions that allow industry to invest with confidence while delivering real emissions reductions.”

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