The floods and cyclones of the last few months and their impact on our communities are a sharp and painful reminder of how important our infrastructure is to people’s lives, especially when it’s not working.
In Budget 2023, our infrastructure plan may not have grabbed the headlines but it’s no less important in building a better tomorrow.
We’ve committed a record $71 billion of investment over the next five years to build the infrastructure backbone and the schools, hospitals and public housing New Zealanders rely on and to help grow the economy.
That’s on top of the $45b we’ve spent in the past five years and the $3.6b set aside to date in the Climate Emergency Response Fund.
Estimates from Treasury have put the cost of asset damage from the floods and cyclone alone at between $9b and $14.5b
Half of this relates to “public infrastructure” — assets owned by central and local government — and so we’re setting aside $6b to build back better and make sure our infrastructure can stand up to the increasingly severe and unpredictable weather events and protect New Zealanders.
The initial focus of investments over the next three years will be on future-proofing road, rail and local infrastructure wiped out by the extreme weather, as well as phone and electricity links.
Building a new bridge to reopen State Highway 25A and reconnect the Coromandel Peninsula is a prime example of how we’re doing things differently.
Not only is a bridge the fastest way to reconnect the Coromandel communities that have been doing it tough, but it’s also the most resilient, so will provide value for money over the long term.
Investing in a lot of smaller projects also makes a big difference. Transport Minister Michael Wood, for example, has been working with Waka Kotahi on a programme of regional resilience investments for our transport network.
These are the unnoticed and unheralded components, like culverts, slip protection and water pumps. But they are critical, and this work will be funded separately from the annual road maintenance budgets due to its importance and to give confidence to our regions that funding is there and ready to be used.
Progress on major resilience projects in other parts of the country will continue, by investing and partnering with local councils, as we’ve done recently, for example in Westport following the severe weather events the town has endured.
Despite these record investments, there’s more to do. As a country, we need to commit to funding and planning for further into the future.
It’s a formula that’s worked well for the Ministry of Education. While I was minister, the ministry moved from one-year ahead funding for school building to a four-year funding cycle. It increased job certainty, business certainty and productivity.
Government needs to do more to work with businesses to plan and deliver world-class infrastructure that mitigates and adapts to changes in the climate.
Our partnership with NZ Steel to remove 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is another marker of our commitment to that approach.
This Government’s commitment to skills and training is another. Infrastructure investment requires a long-term pipeline and skills, which is why the Government’s Apprenticeship Boost programme is so important.
We’re committed to making it permanent and working alongside business to guarantee that we have a base of skilled workers for tomorrow.
For far too long, governments have kicked the can down the road when it comes to investing in critical and resilient infrastructure.
This Government has said “enough!”
We’ve put a stake in the ground to look beyond immediate horizons and fund and develop a long-term nation-building plan that values partnerships, allows for longer lead-in times and has the achievable goal of building resilient infrastructure right across New Zealand to a standard we can all be proud of.
We’ve been able to do this by carefully managing the Government’s books, which means we can give New Zealanders certainty that we have the financial resilience to make these investments.
