Transport and infrastructure industry groups have welcomed the Government’s decision to support all 16 recommendations in the National Infrastructure Plan, saying the cross-party backing provides a rare opportunity to improve long-term infrastructure delivery and investment certainty.
The Government this week released its response to the Infrastructure Commission’s 30-year National Infrastructure Plan, with Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop noting the response is broadly supported by both Labour and the Greens.
Transporting New Zealand says the plan has significant implications for the transport sector, particularly around infrastructure maintenance, transport funding and project certainty.
The organisation welcomed the plan’s focus on renewals and maintenance, saying future governments are likely to prioritise maintaining existing assets.
“Prioritising adequate maintenance and renewals will be an infrastructure priority for future governments, left or right,” Transporting New Zealand says.
The Infrastructure Commission has recommended that 60 cents of every future infrastructure dollar be directed towards maintenance and renewals rather than new projects.
Transporting New Zealand says this should lead to potholes and road surface issues being addressed more quickly, although it may mean major new roading projects take longer to be delivered.
The organisation also highlighted concerns around the long-term sustainability of transport funding.
The Infrastructure Commission estimates it would cost $56 billion to deliver the major roads programme over the next 20 years. If funded solely through fuel excise duty and road user charges, it would require the equivalent of a 49c per litre increase in fuel taxes and corresponding increases in road user charges.
“If New Zealand wants to see safer, modern transport infrastructure, there will need to be difficult decisions about funding it,” Transporting New Zealand says.
“This will include the introduction of measures like time-of-use charging in our congested cities, more toll roads, and a pioneering move to universal road user charges – replacing fuel excise duty.”
The organisation also noted the support shown by Labour and the Greens in the Government’s response document could help reduce the risk of major projects being cancelled following a change of government.
National Road Carriers (NRC) chief executiveJustin Tighe-Umbers says the level of political alignment behind the plan is unusual and long overdue.
“After decades of underinvestment and often ham-fisted execution, including projects announced without funding, ballooning costs and the next Government cancelling what the last one started, the major parties appear to have grown up,” he says.
Tighe-Umbers says the transport sector has long argued for a more stable infrastructure pipeline.
“Our members have watched their substantial road user charges achieve less and less, even as weather events continue to hammer critical routes.”
He says one of the most important aspects of the plan is the certainty it could provide contractors and investors.
Tighe-Umbers referenced comments from Labour infrastructure spokesperson Kieran McAnulty, who noted that “every time the plan changes, we lose time, money, and skilled people”.
“Contractor companies can now see a decades-long horizon rather than a three-year political cycle. That confidence means investment in people and plant, and ultimately better value for every dollar collected in road user charges,” he says.
Infrastructure New Zealand chief executiveNick Leggett also welcomed the Government’s response but says the focus must now shift from planning to delivery.
“The opportunity now is to turn agreement into action and rhetoric into behavioural change,” he says.
“Backing all sixteen recommendations is a strong signal. The inclusion of opposition party responses in the Government’s document is encouraging too. Infrastructure works best when it outlasts any single government, and cross-party engagement is exactly the kind of foundation that makes that possible.”
Leggett says recommendations around investment assurance, asset management, data quality and integrated spatial planning align closely with reforms the industry has advocated for over many years.
“Steps to improve investment assurance, better asset management, better data and integrated spatial planning are not abstract ideas. They are the basics of a system that can deliver.”
While welcoming the plan, Leggett says New Zealand also needs to maintain an ambitious approach to infrastructure investment.
“Fiscal discipline matters, but we cannot cut our way out of an infrastructure deficit. Infrastructure investment drives growth and productivity, and our planning needs to reflect the country New Zealand wants to become.”
He also called for greater certainty around future projects.
“The pipeline is useful, but it cannot just be a wish list. Industry needs more clarity on what is likely to go ahead, and that what is contained in any pipeline, is funded and therefore will be delivered.”
“The plan gives New Zealand a roadmap. The job now is implementation and ambition.”
