Green infrastructure: safeguarding our future

And it means dramatically expanding constructed natural systems, such as urban green roofs, nature-based storm water treatment systems and locally based agricultural systems. This new or built green infrastructure is the key to more sustainable, less energy intensive housing, urban resource management and food production.

In the six years to 2013-14 the Australian government spent $36 billion on grey infrastructure, including more than 120 major road projects, 30 rail networks and six urban public transportation projects. For Australia's economy and communities to thrive long term, this infrastructure spending must be reoriented towards the restoration of natural habitats.

This is not just theory. New York City's Land Acquisition Program has purchased large tracts of land in the city's watershed to ensure clean water supply. In the 1990s, the City faced a choice between investing up to $8 billion in a state-of-the-art water treatment system or about $1.5 billion to protect and restore the Catskills watershed. Protecting the watershed was the environmentally and economically responsible path.

To truly build the infrastructure of the future and achieve genuine progress towards a sustainable Australia, Tony Abbott should reassess his aspiration and seek to be remembered as the green infrastructure Prime Minister.