Infrastructure report: Labour would scrap some PPPs

Phil Twyford.

Labour is promising it will change the game on infrastructure if it gets to form a Government after the September 20 election, and break some contracts like the Wiri Prison public private partnership (PPP).

Shadow Transport Minister Phil Twyford says a Labour-led Government would reel in the "inefficient" partnership model in favour of a larger proportion of projects being funded from the Crown's balance sheet.

"In the case of Wiri Prison in particular, we don't feel the right outcomes are being produced for New Zealanders," says Twyford. "We are fundamentally opposed to privatising the prison system and the power to incarcerate ones fellow citizens."

"Our commitment on the privatised prisons is that we will get out of those contracts. We are absolutely committed to ending those."

Twyford confirms PPPs for two schools will also be thoroughly investigated before a decision is made on whether those contracts would also be terminated. "If you look at the numbers of the school PPPs, it's been an extremely expensive way to fund that infrastructure.

"We think schools and public ownership has worked for over a century and we don't see any real advantage in rolling out PPPs in the education sector.

"Labour believes in development and in principle, we're open to PPPs except for prisons and schools. In transport, it's on a case-by-case basis and that's all about getting value for the taxpayer.

The Greens - Labour's most likely coalition Government partner - have proposed reallocating around $10.4 billion of funding from state highway projects into public transport and rail over the next decade.

They have also proposed a Green Investment Bank to partner with the private sector to fund projects ranging from new clean technologies, to renewable energy and biofuel production.