Grant Robertson talks on the impacts on infrastructure after the budget announcement earlier today.
Spending smarter, not spending more, will be crucial to tackle massive looming infrastructure pressures, the New Zealand Initiative says in a new report today.
Dr Matthew Birchall said pressures on health, transport and housing will intensify as population growth squeezes towns and cities.
Climate change and volatile weather will add additional challenges, he said in the report, titled “Paving the Way: Learning from New Zealand’s Past to Build a Better Future”.
And changing weather patterns will provoke searching questions about infrastructure resilience, the report added.
New Zealand cannot simply build its way out of these problems, said Birchall, a historian and New Zealand Initiative research fellow.
He said it was concerning that an Infrastructure Commission study found the country might have to spend about 9.6 per cent of GDP over 30 years to bridge the infrastructure backlog.
“That is simply not feasible. Nor is it desirable,” Birchall said in the report, released this morning.
“Every dollar spent on infrastructure is one dollar less spent on education, policing and other priorities.”
He said lessons from decades or even centuries past could provide guidance - and warnings.
“Using government borrowing to wish away New Zealand’s infrastructure deficit is tempting,” Birchall added.
“It may even work on a superficial level, but it would be fiscally irresponsible and misallocate resources.
“The travails of Julius Vogel and Robert Muldoon remind us how disastrous betting big on public infrastructure can be.”
An answer was to use local knowledge and get private enterprise involved in big infrastructure projects, he said.
He cited the successful rollout of ultra-fast broadband as one good example.
“Local communities often know their needs better than distant bureaucrats, so it’s important to let those who benefit from growth and development make the decisions.”
The disastrous impact of extreme weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle, which laid waste to parts of Rissington in Hawke's Bay, has added to the challenges of fixing infrastructure problems. Photo / Neil Reid
Birchall said local authorities should be empowered to make critical infrastructure decisions.
“The high standard of the Taranaki toll roads in the early 20th century and the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge after World War II exemplify the advantages of leveraging local knowledge.”
He said a new Ministry of Works was not desirable.
“The problem with the original Ministry of Works is that it did not work. It ran roughshod over local knowledge and was highly politicised.”
That ministry existed from 1870 to 1993.
Birchall said early European settlers built roads and bridges, towns and cities, armed with a positive attitude to building and development.
And as late as the mid-20th century, the Government could create entire suburbs because planning restrictions and zoning regulations did not get in the way, he said.
Birchall said the current Labour-led Government failed to fulfil “lofty promises” for KiwiBuild because planning restrictions and zoning regulations got in the way.
He said it was crucial to simplify the building process.
And Nick Leggett, Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive, said vital transport and other projects must be depoliticised and advanced with greater regional co-operation.
The New Zealand Initiative said its own report today had garnered interest from politicians and industry experts.
