This is why building roads has also hit the wall. Phil Twyford made damn sure of that by putting a dozen of National's big roading projects on the back-burner, including the four laning of the Napier to Hastings Expressway.
Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is thinking about restarting them after two lost years of progress to avoid plunging New Zealand into an infrastructure crisis.
At a recent visit to a big engineering firm in Napier we were shown the last large bridge components being manufactured for projects funded by National. There is nothing in the future pipeline and these massive projects take time.
This has left Kiwis worse off as congestion grows, our economy slows, and the number of people waiting for housing has more than doubled in two short years.
National won't make the same mistakes. If we're given the chance to govern in 2020 we will be the party of infrastructure. We will get on and build things.
We recently released two discussion documents that outline our priorities on infrastructure, transport, and housing. The documents signal our clear intention to establish a long-term pipeline of infrastructure projects to give the construction sector certainty.
National won't neglect our highway network like Labour has. We will invest in the safe, efficient high-quality highways that motorists deserve in return for all the tax Labour has stung them with.
We're proposing to complete our original Roads of National Significance which includes the Hawke's Bay Expressway Four laning, and begin a second generation programme to connect our regions, unlocking their vast social and economic potential.
As export growth through the Napier Port explodes we will also need to look at the Prebensen Drive to Port linkage.
We will keep the Kiwi dream of home ownership alive by overhauling planning rules and repealing the Resource Management Act, which has been tinkered with to the point where it's now a barrier to getting houses and infrastructure built cheaply and efficiently.
The current Government wants to borrow big to pay for the infrastructure we need. Racking up billions in debt on the country's credit card means you, your children, and your grandchildren will be paying it back.
National will take a different approach by exploring new approaches to infrastructure financing and procurement, including commercial revenue schemes, partnerships with the private sector, and capital injections from general government spending.
We'll deliver economic infrastructure that will grow our economy and create jobs.
National is doing the hard work now so we can hit the ground running in 2020.
Lawrence Yule is MP for Tukituki
