Ross Copland: Everyone has a role to play in infrastructure

Achieving a net-zero carbon economy is in large part an infrastructure problem and requires renewable energy development equivalent to building a Clyde Dam every year for the next 30. Photo / Grant Bradley

OPINION:

Our way of life relies on our infrastructure. It is the roads we use to get to work or move goods to market, the power connections that heat our homes, the schools where our children learn, and the hospitals that heal us.

It is a system, that supports almost everything we do.

It’s also facing some considerable challenges. Like many other OECD countries, New Zealand has under-invested in infrastructure in the past. In many cases, this has meant lower service quality and resulted in existing infrastructure is under pressure. Changing weather patterns and rising sea levels test our resilience — nearly $8 billion worth of local government infrastructure is estimated to be at risk from 1.5 metres of sea-level rise.

Achieving a net-zero carbon economy is in large part an infrastructure problem and requires renewable energy development equivalent to building a Clyde Dam every year for the next 30. And we need more infrastructure to enable housing so that our children are not priced out of our cities.

While these are big issues, they are not insurmountable. But overcoming them will require sustained effort from central and local government and the private sector.

In May, Te Waihanga, the Infrastructure Commission, released New Zealand’s first long-term Infrastructure Strategy, which sets out a principles-based approach, objectives and recommendations for how we can address these and other issues. In September, the Government responded to the strategy, supporting the majority of its recommendations.

So, what happens now? In its response, the Government identified that in many areas there is work already underway, as well as others where the action is needed. Later this year, the Minister of Infrastructure will release an action plan with further details on steps the Government is taking to make the strategy a reality. But this is our Infrastructure Strategy, and while the Government needs to do its part, everyone in the sector has a role now in making it a reality and overcoming the challenges.

We need to build smarter — high-quality investment is critical, and we need to make sure we understand the costs and benefits of new investments so that we are investing in the most effective infrastructure solutions.

Te Waihanga is working with other agencies to explore the potential for New Zealand to adopt an infrastructure priority list, a tool that has proven useful in Australia to build an enduring consensus on the infrastructure problems and projects that should be prioritised.

Those involved in providing infrastructure will need to ensure they have considered all options, including non-built options rather than simply building something new. Pricing tools like congestion charging can encourage Kiwis to use public transport and travel off-peak, and volumetric charging for water can drive greater water conservation helping defer very costly upgrades to our drinking water and wastewater networks. Indexing infrastructure charges and prices to inflation might not be popular, but it is essential to start turning the tide on funding constraints which worsen every year as we continue to charge less than the true cost of delivering the service.

Ross Copland is chief executive of Te Waihanga. Photo / Mark Tantrum

We know that our infrastructure system does not work for everyone equally.

Te Waihanga is undertaking significant work into the equity of our existing system, which will address vexing questions like who funds capital and operating costs when we are building for population growth or to improve levels of service, and who benefits from it. We are also looking at how Crown infrastructure providers engage with iwi/Māori, a step toward strengthening partnerships with and opportunities for iwi/Māori in the infrastructure sector.

We can lift our ability to lead complex and difficult projects as the number and complexity of these are expected to increase. Te Waihanga is also working with the Public Service Commission to investigate a major projects leadership academy, which would grow the skills of leaders directing our largest and most complex projects.

Businesses will need to plan for the long term when it comes to their workforce needs.

To help with this, we launched the National Infrastructure Pipeline in 2020, which provides a forward view of planned infrastructure projects in New Zealand in an online format. We are now working to strengthen the National Infrastructure Pipeline to improve the completeness and transparency of project information and provide insights to inform decisions on the demand and supply of new infrastructure in the future.

We’ve also worked to shine a light on issues that can support good planning and decision-making, which included the investigation into the links between infrastructure and housing affordability.

This showed that unless the planning system is very specific about prioritising housing and infrastructure as core objectives, concerns about the urban and natural character will continue to prevail over building the homes New Zealanders desperately need.

Government policymakers can lead the way by reflecting on the Infrastructure Strategy objectives and principles in their policy work and programmes.

A good example of this is the work underway to reform the Resource Management system. Since 2014, the relative costs of consenting infrastructure have increased by 70 per cent. While the average time taken for an infrastructure project consent more than doubled in recent years. Te Waihanga will be looking closely at the Natural and Built Environment and the Spatial Planning Bills and be putting together a submission for the select committee process.

We also have a role in developing the new National Planning Framework that is enabled by these Bills and are working hard to standardise our understanding and management of the effects of building and operating infrastructure to improve certainty and reduce costs in the future system.

It’s critical that our new system is up to the challenge, improving environmental outcomes while reducing the time and cost for the infrastructure we urgently need to reduce our emissions and address pressing issues like housing affordability. New Zealand’s plans have generally given too little consideration to the critical natural resources that underpin our construction industry — materials like sand, gravel and rock. This has made it very slow and costly to gain consent needed to operate quarries, a less exciting but essential part of building every house, road and cycleway in the country.

Te Waihanga has partnered with GNS Science to map New Zealand’s rock resources and further work is now underway to prepare more detailed data in readiness for inclusion in future spatial plans across our growth regions.

There is a common theme to these actions. We can no longer disregard the dramatic economic, social and environmental costs of failing to plan for our future.

Infrastructure will outlive the individuals building it today — we need to make good decisions for the present with an eye on our children ensuring we build a New Zealand that has an even better quality of life than we enjoy today.

• Ross Copland is chief executive of Te Waihanga, the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission.