Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Nick Leggett: Infrastructure NZ Chief Executive on the Government giving the green light to a 30-year infrastructure plan

Transcript

Nick Leggett: Infrastructure NZ Chief Executive on the Government giving the green light to a 30-year infrastructure plan · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So government's given the green light to a thirty year
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: infrastructure plan, Hesbush.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: And that's very consistent with what this government is about,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: which is tackling the tough issues, tackling the systemic issues
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: that have be deviled in Zealand for too long, and
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: being a bit bold and courageous and making the right
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: changes for the right reasons.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: So the governments agreed to thirteen of the sixteen recommendations
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: from the Infrastructure Commission, with the remaining three supported and principle,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and remarkably, Labor and the Greens have also backed a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: long term bipartisan approach. So we're joined by the Infrastructure
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: New Zealand CEO Nicklegant. Good morning to you, Hello Andrew.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: This is quite amazing, isn't it? Bipartisan? I mean, how
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: much support are we getting from all the parties.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Well, both Karen McNaughty and from Labor and Julian Ginda
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: from the Greens put wrote forwards to the document, which
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: is really positive. I think it shows that irrespective of
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: political stripe, the parties are realizing that the way infrastructure
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: is done i too driven by politics, too prone to
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: lurch when there's change of government. And if you are
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: leaving government. You don't like to see all your project's canceled.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: So there has to be a more sustainable funded pipeline
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: that moves irrespective of political cycles. And the reason for that, Andrew,
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: there's some really sort of bold numbers up front. We
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: spend enough on infrastructure devil take. We're in the we're
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: above average in the oe c D, but the value
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: we get from every dollar we spend is in the
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: bottom sort of one or two of the oe c D.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: And that gap is what we've got to close. We've
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: got to we've got to do better and get you
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: get more efficiencies out of the spend and plan better
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: over the long term. And the shame, the sad thing
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: is it's politics that does us.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Of course, yeah, but when we when we say infrastructure,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: people that immediately just think roads and trains, But actually
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it's actually an awful lot more than that is labor
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: regulations and all sorts of things, isn't it. What is
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the most important thing we need to do to improve
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: efficiency and reduce cost.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Well, it's the whole planning system. So if you think
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: about Chris Bishop's RAMA reforms, that's a big part of
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: what we're talking about. But the schools, hospitals, water, The
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: list goes on even housing and the system that delivers housing.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: So what we have to do is the first thing
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: I think that's really important here is attach proper funding.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: So when a project is announced, it goes into a
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: pipeline that there's actually money appropriated to build it. There
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: are a lot of phantom projects that have come and
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: gone over the years, and people get very excited. You
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: think about let's get Wellington moving in Auckland light rail.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: You know, potentially good projects, but they were allowed to
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: be sort of picked off politically because that the money
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: to actually deliver them was never properly put forward. And
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: so one that's a really good way of getting efficiency.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: But I'll tell you a big part of this plan, Andrew,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: that I think you and people listening will be interested in.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: When we talk about an infrastructure deficit in New Zealand,
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: we're talking about sixty percent of what we're talking about
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: when we mentioned a deficit is money we fail to
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: spend on the infrastructure assets we've already built. And you
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: mentioned roads, yep, you mentioned roads. Maintenance, renewing of those
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: things so they last longer and we get better value
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: for money once again. We are a great nation where
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: it comes to the set and forget, and I'll give
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: you one big example.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Don't don't depress us. We've had enough, we understand and
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: we wish it all. The very best of Black and
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I thank you for more.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: From Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talk Set being from five am weekdays,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.