In this week’s Infrastructure Policy Watch, New Zealand’s new approach to planning and prioritisation could close its infrastructure gap.
In a recent speech, New Zealand’s Minister for Housing set out the country’s infrastructure delivery challenge – and how the government is tackling it.
Infrastructure is “critical” to improve New Zealand’s low economic growth.
But there’s a problem. The country’s infrastructure costs too much to deliver and isn’t performing as well as it needs to.
There’s no single reason for this. The government has found problems at all stages of project lifecycles and in all sectors.
It urgently needs to start fixing them to close the country’s NZ$100 billion infrastructure gap.
Otherwise, it won’t be able to deal with future challenges like population growth and climate change.
How is the government addressing this?
The National Party promised a new approach to infrastructure ahead of last year’s election.
The minister’s speech provides more detail about how planning and delivery will change.
1. National Infrastructure Plan
The government has asked the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission / Te Waihanga to develop a new independent National Infrastructure Plan.
It will have four key components:
- The Infrastructure Needs Assessment will outline New Zealand’s infrastructure investment needs over the next 30 years based on demands like population growth and natural hazards. This will then be compared against what the government can afford to help it prioritise investment.
- A stronger National Infrastructure Pipeline will set out intended public and private sector infrastructure investment over the next 10 years. It will also generate data to assess market capacity and how likely projects are to be delivered on time and on budget.
- The Infrastructure Priorities Programme will be an independent review led by Te Waihanga to assess currently unfunded projects and proposals. Projects that meet New Zealand’s strategic objectives, represent value for money and are deliverable could be prioritised for investment.
- Priority reforms will be other interventions that don’t need investment, and which can improve how infrastructure projects are chosen, funded and delivered.
The government also wants to increase certainty that long-term projects will maintain support through changes in government.
It plans to hold an annual special debate in parliament on the National Infrastructure Plan. Te Waihanga will also be asked to brief spokespeople from the main political parties every six months.
The government says it wants to learn from Australia’s approach to using independent agencies and an Infrastructure Priority List to identify, build support for and deliver long-term projects.
The National Infrastructure Plan will be published in December 2025. The government will respond to it in early 2026.
2. National Infrastructure Agency
The government has also given more details about the new National Infrastructure Agency (NIA).
To unlock more private investment the NIA will be a “one-stop shop” for investors to partner with the government on infrastructure projects.
Its objectives will be to:
- facilitate private sector investment in infrastructure
- provide commercial expertise to national agencies and local government bodies working on projects involving private finance
- administer central government infrastructure funds
The NIA will be established by repurposing the existing Crown Infrastructure Partners, which currently performs some of those functions.
It means Te Waihanga will continue as the government’s independent strategic advisor on infrastructure matters, focusing on long-term strategy.
And the Treasury will assume responsibility for public-private partnership (PPP) policy.
The NIA will be operational from 1 December this year.
What else is the government doing?
The government has also been focused on improving how quickly new projects get planning permission.
Its legislating to set up a new fast-track consenting regime for nationally and regionally significant projects.
It will also develop a new National Policy Statement (NPS) for infrastructure.
This should complement existing sectoral NPSs and set out the governments objectives for infrastructure to guide planning decisions.
The ICE’s view
Infrastructure delivery challenges are not unique to New Zealand.
The ICE-led Enabling Better Infrastructure (EBI) programme is working with governments to help them see beyond the uncertainties of the day to develop stable, sustainable and investable infrastructure project pipelines that meet people’s needs.
Better strategic planning is a prerequisite for better delivery.
As part of that work EBI has been engaging with Te Waihanga to provide sounding board insights on their activities to deliver on the changes they face.
Earlier this year, Te Waihanga asked the EBI team to peer-review a key part of the new Infrastructure Priorities Programme.
It’s developed a new framework for prioritising infrastructure projects by assessing proposals consistently and transparently.
The EBI team convened a group of specialists with deep, wide-ranging insights on strategic infrastructure planning to provide feedback on an interim version of the framework.
Specialists provided insight on global best practice for strengthening project outcomes and better data-use in New Zealand.
In case you missed it:
- ICE Policy Fellow Graham Dalton asks whether England’s new national networks planning guidance already needs updating.
- An independent review examines how the new UK government can fix rail and urban transport.
- We look at how Chilean laws encourage community involvement, including with indigenous groups, in the infrastructure planning process.
