Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s government released proposals to alter tax laws as they seek to make it more attractive for private investors, including the nation’s $1.3 trillion pension fund industry, to invest in infrastructure.

The changes concern the treatment of tax losses on projects classified as of national significance, according to an e-mailed statement from Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Anthony Albanese today. The government published a discussion paper on the proposed changes and is seeking feedback by Dec. 9, it said.

Australia needs to build as much as A$700 billion ($725 billion) of infrastructure in the next decade and governments won’t be able to fund all of the projects, Rod Eddington, chairman of Infrastructure Australia, said in August. The nation’s pension fund assets are the world’s fourth-largest behind Japan, the U.K. and the U.S., rising to $1.3 trillion at the end of 2010, according to a report by Towers Watson.

--Editors: Malcolm Scott, Edward Johnson

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McDonald in Sydney at smcdonald23@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shelley Smith at ssmith118@bloomberg.net