Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts is a department of the Australian Government responsible for providing advice on and delivering policies and programs for infrastructure, transport, regional development, communications, cultural affairs, sports, and the arts.

History

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts was formed from the former Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. It was established and named under an Administrative Arrangements Order made on 1 July 2022, after the 2022 Australian election, under the new Albanese government.
It was renamed to Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts on 13 May 2025, gaining the sport and recreation policy and functions from the Department of Health and Aged Care. However, land and planning policy and cities and urban policy were transferred to the Treasury.

Description

The department is responsible for delivering Australian Government policy and programs for infrastructure, transport, regional development, communications, cultural affairs, and the arts.

Ministers

the Ministers of State for the Department are:

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government: Catherine King
Minister for Northern Australia: Madeleine King
Minister for Communications: Anika Wells
Minister for Sport: Anika Wells
Minister for the Arts: Tony Burke
Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories: Kristy McBain
Assistant Minister for Regional Development: Anthony Chisholm
Assistant Minister for Northern Australia: Nita Green
Other staff

Jim Betts is Secretary of the department.

Operational activities

In an Administrative Arrangements Order made on 13 May 2025, the functions of the department were broadly classified into the following matters:

Infrastructure planning and co-ordination
Transport safety, including investigations
Land transport
Civil aviation and airports
Maritime transport including shipping
Major projects, including implementation of all non-Defence development projects
Administration of the Jervis Bay Territory, the Territory of Cocos Islands, the Territory of Christmas Island, the Coral Sea Islands Territory, the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands, and Norfolk Island
Constitutional development of the Northern Territory
Constitutional development of the Australian Capital Territory
Delivery of regional and territory specific services and programmes
Planning and land management in the Australian Capital Territory
Regional development
Matters relating to local government
Regional policy and co-ordination
Northern Australia policy and coordination
Broadband policy and programmes
Postal and telecommunications policies and programmes
Spectrum policy management
Broadcasting policy
Content policy relating to the information economy
Cultural affairs, including movable cultural heritage and support for the arts
Classification
Management of government records
Old Parliament House
Sport and recreation
Significant policies

Cultural policy

The Office for the Arts issued the national cultural policy, called "Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place", in January 2023. Under the policy, which is set to run for five years, the Creative Futures Fund was set up under the auspices of Creative Australia in July 2025 to fund ambitious cross-sector projects across the nation. A quota was introduced in November 2025, by Minister for the Arts Tony Burke, requiring global streaming media companies with over a million Australian subscribers to spend either 7.5% of revenues, or 10% of Australian expenditures on local original content.

Australian Screen Production Incentive (ASPI)

Australian Screen Production Incentive, provided by the Australian Government to support the Australian film industry since 2007, comprises three mutually exclusive components:

Producer offset, a 40% tax rebate on the qualifying spend of qualifying Australian films, and a 30% rebate for other qualifying productions that contain significant Australian content
PDV offset, a 30% rebate on the qualifying Australian expenditure related to PDV production
Location offset, on the qualifying Australian spend of large-scale productions

The PDV and Location offsets are administered by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. The Minister for the Arts is responsible for issuing a final certificate for a film in relation to the PDV tax offset.