Long-term vision essential for NZ's infrastructure future

NZ Herald

3 days ago

Too often, infrastructure is treated as a list of disconnected projects. A road here, a hospital wing there, a new pipe or port when the pressure gets too much.
But infrastructure isn't about individual assets, it's about a network of platforms that allow people to live their lives and go about making a living.
Infrastructure enables economic growth, social cohesion and environmental resilience. Every dollar spent is a down payment on the kind of country we want our children and grandchildren to inherit.
Nick Leggett is the chief executive of Infrastructure NZ
To get this right, we need more than planning and funding. We need a national vision.
Some politicians roll their eyes at the word 'vision', seeing it as too abstract or ideological. But in fact, the absence of vision is what gets us into trouble.
Without long-term thinking, we get short-term decisions. Projects chopped and changed with political cycles, reactive funding decisions, stop-start pipelines that waste money and talent.
The fact that politicians don't like it is a clue as to why a vision is so valuable. They don't like it because they can't control it.
With a shared vision, we gain direction and clarity. We can prioritise, align investment and policy, make the hard calls about what's most important – and importantly keep successive governments on track when they try to deviate and cut projects.
For a country like New Zealand that is geographically isolated, fiscally constrained and with a small, ageing population, that's not just idealism. It's survival.
New Zealand has gone from being one of the most trade-intensive economies per capita to now exporting a smaller share of GDP than the OECD median.
Compared to countries like Ireland, Singapore and Denmark – similar in size, but far more focused on strategic infrastructure and economic positioning, we are massively underperforming.
That matters. The roads we drive on, the schools our kids attend, the hospitals we rely on, and the green energy we need – all depend on the income we earn from offshore.
Infrastructure isn't just about what's visible on our streets. It's about building the foundations for a modern, outward-facing, productive economy.
We are seeing real signs of progress. The Government has introduced some of the most significant system changes in recent memory.
Reforms to resource management, water services and regional planning are laying the groundwork for more integrated thinking.
The Labour Party has expressed some level of cooperation in response, which is promising.
The creation of Invest New Zealand is a critical step. We won't meet our infrastructure needs with public money alone.
Private and offshore investment must be part of the picture; however, it must be well-targeted, guided by public interest, and attract genuinely new capital.
The model must be credible and transparent, with clear rules and strong public support.
The Infrastructure Priorities Programme is also promising, giving us a framework to assess and prioritise the most urgent and valuable projects.
Alongside it, the first-ever National Policy Statement for Infrastructure sets the tone for future planning and delivery, which will embed infrastructure as a core part of national development.
But plans alone are not enough. A vision brings these threads together and gives them meaning.
To be successful it must also drive action and give business and communities the confidence to invest. It helps us stay the course.
A clear, long-term pipeline of infrastructure work isn't just efficient, it's financially smart.
Analysis by Infometrics shows that by reducing uncertainty and creating a stable delivery environment, New Zealand could save between $2 billion and $4.7b each year.
That's money we're currently wasting through cancellations, delays, duplicated effort and poor coordination.
Our obsession with short-term cost-cutting – the 'nickel and dime' approach – has undermined long-term value. We panic about cost over runs but rarely ask what the cost is of not building at all.
We celebrate the cancellation of projects but don't adequately even monitor the work we have in the market or the projects in the pipeline.
Growing, productive nations build good systems for funding and delivery. They also understand that infrastructure costs what it costs and that the benefits compound for generations.
One of the most overlooked aspects of New Zealand's infrastructure deficit is how poorly we've maintained what we already have. We need to stop chasing only the shiny and new, and start respecting, renewing and better using existing assets.
That means smarter asset management. It means investing in good data and decision-making. And it means changing our political mindset from one of celebrating project cancellations to championing long-term results from better services delivered by our infrastructure.
We need to stop chasing only the shiny and new, and start respecting, renewing and better using existing assets. Nick Leggett
None of this is possible without a steady, well-supported workforce. The infrastructure industry cannot keep scaling up and down with the political tides.
It causes burnout, skills loss and inefficiency. We need a pipeline of skilled workers and leadership across engineering, construction, planning and asset management, backed by education and immigration policies that match.
In recent years, Infrastructure New Zealand has led delegations to Denmark, Ireland and Canada. These countries face similar constraints to ours, yet they're achieving greater infrastructure productivity through one key difference – cross-party political consensus anchored by a better shared sense of where they are going as respective nations.
They debate priorities, but they don't debate the need for progress.
This year's Draft Infrastructure Plan lays out scenarios for New Zealand's population reaching nearly eight million by 2050.
That's a big shift in demand, especially as we age. We can't pretend that today's systems will stretch to meet tomorrow's needs. We must start planning now, guided by shared goals and not fragmented politics.
So, let's start the hard conversation. Let's challenge ourselves to commit to a national vision. It will provoke discussions of identity and of cultural mindset of how we make choices together – and how we get things done.
Let's imagine a New Zealand that's more connected, more productive, more inclusive and more resilient. Decent infrastructure is a means to that end.
· Infrastructure New Zealand is the peak body of the New Zealand infrastructure sector and is hosting the upcoming Building Nations Conference.
· Infrastructure New Zealand is an advertising sponsor of the Herald's Infrastructure report.