A 30-year National Infrastructure Plan and the establishment of a National Infrastructure Agency have been welcomed by infrastructure professionals
The Government’s new National Infrastructure Agency will unlock access to more capital for infrastructure, while the 30-year National Infrastructure Plan will ensure greater stability of infrastructure priorities, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop says.
Led by New Zealand’s Infrastructure Commission, Bishop says the plan will outline New Zealand’s infrastructure needs over the next 30 years, planned investments over the next 10-15 years, and recommendations on priority projects and reforms to fill the gap between what we have now, what we will have soon, and what we’ll need in future.
In developing the National Infrastructure Plan, the Infrastructure Commission will work across central and local government, along with the private and wider infrastructure sector.
It will consist of four components:
- An Infrastructure Needs Assessment which provides analysis of New Zealand’s long-term needs – and what we can afford – across the next 5-30 years
- A strengthened National Infrastructure Pipeline which will provide a national view of upcoming projects in the next ten years
- The Infrastructure Priorities Programme (IPP) which will involve a structured independent review of unfunded projects and initiatives, and
- Priority reforms, which will improve the way we select, invest in, deliver and maintain our infrastructure.
“The IPP picks up lessons from Australia’s Infrastructure Priority List which has helped them build political consensus on an enduring pipeline of priorities – exactly what we need in New Zealand,” Bishop says.
He is encouraging private sector, non-government organisations, local government and communities to submit their proposals for infrastructure priorities on the IPP website.
The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission describes the IPP as “a public menu of priority infrastructure proposals that have been submitted to us and gone through a standardised independent review process”.
“A proposal doesn’t have to be a built piece of infrastructure. It could be a solution to avoid the need for building new infrastructure, like a congestion charge that can help manage use of an existing road. Proposals can be submitted at different stages, from the initial idea, to options assessment, to the stage at which they are ready to be built,” the Commission says.
“A robust assessment process can have benefits for infrastructure providers, decision-makers and the construction sector in determining future capability needs. Whether your proposal is successful or not, you will receive free, independent, and targeted advice from our assessors on how it could be improved.”
Members of Āpōpō, an association for infrastructure asset management professionals, are keen to submit to the IPP.
President Gary Porteous says it’s long past due that New Zealand has a bi-partisan, strategic view about infrastructure development and management.
He welcomes the National Infrastructure Plan, saying the ongoing maintenance and management of the country’s major infrastructure assets has been on a downward spiral of under-investment for years. It’s a trajectory that’s created a number of major long-term issues for NZ Inc, and it will be hard to turn around.
As a consequence, and because of ongoing uncertainty and the lack of construction, the sector has lost skilled people and much-needed expertise to deliver these projects.
The recent Apopo member sentiment survey found that one of the top three challenges for asset managers is the reliability of planning direction across election cycles. Increased funding and new funding sources were also cited as top priorities for the future of New Zealand’s infrastructure.
“Something really needed to change and the Government’s new plan has the potential to be that game-changer. But, we desperately need immediate and decisive action and to see an urgent timeline around projects rolling out.”
Porteous agrees any infrastructure development plan needed to be truly bi-partisan and long-term in vision. The 30-year life-cycle that’s been proposed is appropriate given infrastructure assets last for generations.
“Our asset management professionals have been working hard on their Long Term Plans, to improve the data and predict trends like population growth, regional development, and community requirements as well as finding efficiencies. We understand the risks associated with New Zealand’s geology and we are increasingly aware and conscious of the growing impacts of climate change and the need for adaptation.
“Having a strategic plan that takes those and other considerations into account, that is properly funded, and that isn’t subject to a three-year election cycle, is something that our members, as infrastructure and asset management professionals, support wholeheartedly.”
Porteous adds that the new National Infrastructure Agency needs to deliver innovative funding models, both to finance new infrastructure assets and address the massive infrastructure deficit the country now faces.
From 1 December, Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP) will be repurposed to be the new National Infrastructure Agency, which will:
- Act as the Crown’s ‘shopfront’ to receive unsolicited proposals and to facilitate private sector investment in infrastructure,
- Partner with agencies, and in some cases, local government on projects involving private finance,
- Administer Central Government infrastructure funds, and
- Continue the work CIP is already doing.
Bishop says the new National Infrastructure Agency will help facilitate private capital into New Zealand’s infrastructure and help close the infrastructure gap faster.
It will open up opportunities for the private sector to propose a project or invest in New Zealand infrastructure, he says.
“There is a clear capability gap inside government in utilising private finance, alternative funding, and complex procurement models such as build-operate-transfer models, Public Private Partnerships, developer levies, beneficiary levies, value uplift mechanisms, and value capture mechanisms. The NIA will now provide that expertise and commercial capability, and will work by deploying expertise into agencies that are working on projects that include one or more of these arrangements.”
