All councils should have free access to location intelligence to manage buildings, infrastructure and hazards, says Geoscape.

The company’s CEO, Dean Capobianco, made the point during a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry examining the financial sustainability of local government.

Appearing before the committee in Canberra, Capobianco called on the federal government to fund free and open access to nationally consistent location data, including the National Buildings Dataset.

“Councils cannot make better decisions about housing, infrastructure, climate resilience and scarce resources without better information about the assets and communities they manage,” he said.

“A consistent, nationally standardised picture of Australia’s buildings can give every council — metropolitan, regional and remote — foundational information about where buildings are, their potential exposure to natural hazards, and where investment is most needed.”

Access to national dataset would cost $5 million

The National Buildings Dataset is an AI-driven digital twin of Australia’s 19 million buildings, delivering authoritative and detailed insights on each of them.

It supports infrastructure planning, emergency management, disaster recovery and more precise assessment of building-level risks such as flooding.

Capobianco said all 538 local councils could receive free access to the national dataset, which would cost around $5 million a year.

“For a relatively modest investment, every council could have access to the same nationally consistent information. This would reduce duplication, strengthen council planning and help all governments direct limited public funding to where it can make the greatest difference,” he said.

“We already have this national capability. The opportunity now is to put it to work for all 538 councils so that every community across Australia can benefit.”