Budget 2023: What Infrastructure NZ wants to see on Thursday

Flood damage in Donovan Park in Te Puke. Photo / Alex Cairns

Nick Leggett, Infrastructure New Zealand’s chief executive, outlines what he wants to see in Thursday’s Budget.

OPINION:

Like all Kiwis, we expect this year’s Budget to mega-fund the Government’s cyclone and flooding response and rebuild, focusing especially on transport connections and lifeline service resilience in places worst hit by this year’s severe weather.

Treasury estimates the total cost of asset damage from the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle at $9 billion to $14b. These costs must be met within the Budget’s operating and capital allowances and through some borrowing.

We also expect previously signed-off transport priorities to be rearranged, however, we will be making sure the Government doesn’t use weather as an excuse to spend less or the same. We were already in an infrastructure hole, the best way to get out of it is to invest more.

The Government has strongly indicated that its draft Policy Statement on Land Transport 2024-2034 is now likely to pivot away from climate change mitigation measures and towards resilience and rebuilding damaged roads, highways and bridges. This is sensible.

It’s vital that all infrastructure investment and rebuild decisions should be taken with climate change and resilience front and centre, every time. We already know there will be investment in hybrid rail in the lower North Island with a fleet of 18 new trains for Wairarapa and Kāpiti Coast. It’s sensible that bolstering reliable and low-emission public transport occurs in major cities.

This is the only way we can hope people choose other ways of travel and leave their cars at home. Just months ago New Zealand was grappling with a $210b infrastructure deficit, severely hampering our resilience and progress as a nation.

Now, after this year’s weather events and subsequent infrastructure rebuild requirements, things look even worse. The only option is to invest more - and we hope to see that signalled in this Budget.

Governments must be nimble, react and change direction, but infrastructure shouldn’t be a victim of that. Along with other critical public services, infrastructure should be the one constant that any Government can be expected to prioritise and deliver on irrespective of its political stripes.

Infrastructure New Zealand is actively working to depoliticise infrastructure by getting a broad agreement about what infrastructure political parties need to prioritise for the benefit of our people and communities. The ongoing list of unfunded infrastructure projects being promoted with fanfare needs to stop.

A pipeline of essential work should be guaranteed outside of election cycles and budgets, with funding locked in. We agree with support and funding for Rau Paenga, which has been newly established to support Crown infrastructure delivery.

Organisations will have access to experienced project delivery teams and robust project management processes, which we hope will create a strong pipeline of infrastructure projects across New Zealand. All that said, Infrastructure New Zealand does not have a wishlist for things in the Budget.

We are far more focused on improving the approach to better funding, and use of private capital, faster building through less red tape and that all-important guarantee of a funded pipeline. Only these things will give certainty to our sector and allow them to be ready to build and to keep building.

It is time for our leaders and politicians to really answer these critical questions. We must agree on a sustainable funding and financing model that serves us far into the future, not one that changes every three years at a general election.

In the meantime, we will need to make greater use of existing tools and debt funding, as well as kicking-off congestion charging and the tolling of new roads.

New Zealand needs to grow up and accept the costs if we are going to build a prosperous platform for current and future generations to succeed from.