About betterment

What is betterment?

Betterment allows local governments and state agencies to rebuild essential public assets to a more resilient standard to help them withstand the impacts of future natural disasters.

Examples include improvements to vital infrastructure such as roads, bridges and floodways. These can vary from stabilisation of low-lying roads to reduce erosion and scouring, upgrades to drainage structures to increase capacity or replacing gravel with reinforced concrete to improve resilience.

Queensland Betterment Funds are jointly funded (50:50) by the Australian and Queensland Governments.

Benefits of betterment

Queensland leads the nation in building resilience in its communities through betterment programs. Queensland’s experience with betterment funds shows that an upfront investment in rebuilding impacted assets to be more resilient saves money for all levels of government in future disasters.

Since the first betterment fund was established in 2013, more than 920 projects across 76 local government areas in Queensland – with a betterment value approximately $790 million – have been approved, helping create stronger, more resilient Queensland communities.

Betterment can:

• increase the resilience of our communities to natural disasters
• reduce future costs of natural disasters on asset restoration
• reduce incidents, injuries and fatalities during and after natural disasters
• improve asset utility and connectivity during and after natural disasters.

Proven success of betterment programs

A key test for betterment projects is whether they leave infrastructure and communities less vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters.

A review of reconstruction costs associated with Betterment funding from 2013-2024, reveals that from an investment of $244 million in projects that have been re-impacted, QRA estimates approximately $988 million dollars has been saved in avoided reconstruction costs.

Betterment avoided costs are calculated by multiplying the initial reconstruction cost of the asset by the number of subsequent disasters with the assuming no damage, thereby nullifying the need for further reconstruction.

Not only has betterment achieved substantial cost savings through more resilient infrastructure, it has also improved the lives of those living in impacted communities. Roads, bridges and other infrastructure are able to withstand weather events, and return to functionality much sooner in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

Further, the avoided costs figure is based on estimated reconstruction costs only and does not include the many intangible benefits associated with having more resilient infrastructure. This can include social, economic, and environmental benefits such as more connected communities, continuity of telecommunications, road networks and other essential services, increased consumer confidence and business activity, and reduced impacts on the environment (for example, erosion and run off into creek beds and other waterways). If these intangible benefits were included the total avoided cost figure would be much higher.

History of betterment in Queensland

The Queensland Government, through the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, initiated the first Queensland Betterment Fund in February 2013 following Severe Tropical Cyclone Oswald, which caused more than $2 billion in damage to essential public assets. Many of these assets had been repeatedly impacted and restored after earlier disasters in 2011 and 2012, only to be damaged again in 2013.

The 2013 Queensland Betterment Fund provided $80 million for assets to be built back better, enabling assets to be built back to a standard that would be more disaster resilient, reducing risk to the community and future reconstruction costs from subsequent events.

Under the fund, assets such as roads, water supply infrastructure, bridges and drainage systems were identified by local governments for betterment that would provide resilience and risk reduction benefits for their communities.

Including the initial program, Queensland has now established 10 Betterment programs:

• $155 million Betterment Fund established in 2025 following the Western Queensland Surface Trough
• $205 million Betterment Fund established in 2025 following the North and Far North Tropical Low
• $130 million Betterment Fund established in 2024 following Tropical Cyclone Jasper
• $100 million Betterment Fund established in 2023 following Northern and Central Queensland Monsoon and Flooding event
• $170 million Betterment Fund established in 2022 following the Central, Southern and Western Queensland Rainfall and Flooding; Ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth Flooding; and the South East Queensland Heavy Rainfall and Flooding event.
• $20 million Betterment Fund established in 2021 following the 2020-21 disaster season
• $102 million Betterment Fund established in 2019 following North and Far North Queensland Monsoon Trough (in delivery)
• $41.85 million Betterment Fund established in 2017 following Severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie
• $20 million Betterment Fund established in 2015 following Severe Tropical Cyclone Marcia
• $80 million Betterment Fund established in 2013 following Severe Tropical Cyclone Oswald.

Betterment is a great example of all levels of government working together to improve the resilience of Queensland communities.

Through the various betterment programs, local governments have been empowered to assess, plan and implement disaster resilience at a grass-roots level, enabling work to begin as soon as possible following a natural disaster, helping to mitigate the impact on their local communities.