Prime Minister Christopher Luxon opened the summit with a clear message, “New Zealand is open for business”.
But just how open to business is still up for debate. Speaking to the Herald ahead of the summit, one investor said firms will want to see a commitment to a long-term pipeline of work rather than just one or two projects. Foreign investors aren’t likely to embed themselves in the New Zealand market for just one or two investments.
Meanwhile the Greens have reiterated their threat that projects granted consents under the fast-track law may have their consents revoked by a future Green government - a warning to any investor who wants to make use of fast-track consenting to make their PPP easier.
The Government says the interest in the conference, which was oversubscribed, and which attendees are paying their own way to attend, is a vote of confidence in the future of the economy. They hope at least some of the more than 100 attendees will decide to partner with the Government to deliver infrastructure through some form of public-private partnership (PPP).
Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chris Bishop will use the conference to open expressions of interest in the first part of the Northland Expressway, a new motorway connecting Auckland with Whangārei.
The first section will connect with the expressway north of Auckland, which currently ends at Warkworth, taking the road to Te Hana, a journey of 26km. It will include an 850m-long twin bore tunnel in the Dome Valley and three interchanges located at Warkworth, Wellsford and Te Hana.
Other proposals will also be shopped at the summit with David Seymour, Nicola Willis, Erica Stanford, Shane Jones, Simeon Brown, Paul Goldsmith, Judith Collins, Shane Reti, Mark Mitchell, Todd McClay, Tama Potaka, Simon Watts and Nicole McKee all attending.
Luxon said “a number of investment propositions will be presented over the next two days – including both PPPs and private sector opportunities that are ‘investment ready’. A pipeline of projects will also be presented – highlighting the opportunities available to investors in the coming months and years to come”.
Luxon will open and close the summit. Former Newshub presenter Mike McRoberts will MC and speak on panels along with guests including Air New Zealand chairwoman Dame Therese Walsh, Auckland Business Chamber CEO Simon Bridges, and Tukoroirangi Morgan who chairs Te Arataura, the executive entity for Waikato-Tainui.
The Park Hyatt Auckland in Wynyard Quarter will host the summit. Photo / Park Hyatt Auckland
Labour’s finance and infrastructure spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds will also be there, delivering on the bipartisan approach National and Labour have been trying to take on the issue of infrastructure. That bipartisanship has limits, however, with Edmonds’ leader Chris Hipkins probing the Government in the House on Wednesday whether it intended to privatise health and education buildings - a red line for Labour in the past.
The summit includes panels on topics like regulation, growth, health, and the Māori economy, but the real interest is in the “showcase” sessions, in which ministers showcase the investment opportunities in their portfolios.
A large number of local firms are also attending, with the Government hopeful that overseas investors will partner with local firms on some deals - and perhaps forge partnerships that will lead to future, non-government deal-making.
Morrison, the New Zealand-founded global infrastructure manager, will be at the summit.
Its chief executive Paul Newfield told the Herald it was keen to bring investors home to New Zealand.
“A lot of the institutional investors in the room are people who we have existing global relationships with. We’re really trying to say to them, ‘you already work with a global infrastructure investor from New Zealand, make sure that you also look at things with us in New Zealand’,” he said.
Newfield said Morrison was involved in several of the previous generation of PPPs, including the Pūhoi to Warkworth expressway and school building projects, and it was keen to get involved again.
“The last big wave of PPPs, which really kicked off about 2010 ... our consortia won six out of eight of them,” he said.
Newfield said he would “definitely have a good look” at the projects the Government is shopping this week.
“I’m not sure if we’ll bid for all of them. Some of them might be too small for us. What we’re really hoping to see is a good long-term pipeline of opportunities,” he said.
Newfield said it was crucial there was a high-quality pipeline of good projects stretching into the future, a pipeline to ensure the workforce was here to deliver the projects, and a strong bipartisan commitment to minimise sovereign risk.
“An important thing is the quality of the overall pipeline. People are unlikely to come across to New Zealand and make an effort to actively engage in the market for one project or two projects. What they want to know is that there is a long-term commitment to work with private capital,” he said.
BusinessDesk earlier reported there are only four projects that might be ready for PPP investment in the short and near term: the redevelopment of Linton Military Camp, the redevelopment of the Christchurch Men’s prison, courts in Waitākere and Rotorua, and the Northland expressway.
The Government announced a handful of sweeteners for guests. Trade Minister Todd McClay announced progress on the InvestNZ entity, which is meant to act as a concierge for foreign investors.
Revenue Minister Simon Watts announced changes to the much maligned Foreign Investment Fund (FIF) regime, which has been blamed for making New Zealand an unattractive country for wealthy foreigners who have to pay punitive rates of tax on their offshore wealth.
Under the proposal, people will have the option to apply a new “revenue account method” to calculate FIF income, resulting in tax on a realisation basis, with some caveats.
Green Party infrastructure and transport spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter sounded a note of scepticism about the summit, describing it as a “talkfest”.
“It is really demonstrating that the Government doesn’t have real ideas about how to improve productivity in New Zealand,” she said.
Genter argued that there was no such thing as free money, and whether the capital came from the private sector or the public sector, Kiwis would still to have to pay for their infrastructure.
“The reality is those investors will want to return. It’s highly likely we will end up paying more for anything that they are investing in [compared with a publicly financed option],” she said.
Genter said she was concerned that if the Government signed New Zealand up to a host of expensive PPPs, future governments would be left with the bill, reducing their ability to deliver on their own manifesto commitments.
She also raised the issue of sovereign risk, saying that and PPPs that relied on fast-track consents may have those consents revoked by a future Green government - the Greens and Te Pāti Māori have both warned.
“We’ve been very, very clear with fast track projects that there’s no way, given how improper the process has been, that a future government could afford to carry on with consent for projects that have completely bypassed environmental considerations, climate considerations - it’s just, it’s not tenable,” she said, adding she doubted there would be many or any PPP deals inked before the next election.
Thomas Coughlan is deputy political editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the Press Gallery since 2018.
