Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Allan Pollard: Civil Contractors NZ CEO on the National Infrastructure Plan

Transcript

Allan Pollard: Civil Contractors NZ CEO on the National Infrastructure Plan · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So we've got this thirty INFRACOM report, the Infrastructure Commission report.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: They can spend fifty five to seventy billion less on roads.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Your rons might be under threat. Double spending on hospitals
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: because we're getting older, one hundred billion more on energy
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and how do you pay for it? Well, more user pays,
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  Speaker 1: including potentially a toll on the Auckland Harbor Bridge. Allan
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  Speaker 1: Pollard Civil Contractors, New Zealand chief is with us this morning.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Hey Ellen, Hi, right, how are you good? Thank you?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Do you use it well? First of all, good, good
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  Speaker 1: idea good plan? You like it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think it's a real honest assessment of
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  Speaker 2: the real challenges we faced with all infrastructure program in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand. It reflects a lot of the things we've
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  Speaker 2: been advocating for for some time. That the need for
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  Speaker 2: a very clear, consistent, funded pipeline of work, the fact
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: that we need to rebuild our capacity and capability were
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: deliver it. So it has to have a long term vision,
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  Speaker 2: and the need to remove a lot of these regulatory
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  Speaker 2: barriers that we've faced historically. So I think it's a
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  Speaker 2: very good, open, honest assessment.
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  Speaker 1: Good but a lot of the problem with the project
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: that we've had in the past is they stay on
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  Speaker 1: paper too long and don't actually happen. So to make
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  Speaker 1: this work, we need to get all the polleys on board.
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  Speaker 2: Right absolutely, and they look to be fair. I often
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  Speaker 2: have people tell me that it's never going to happen,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, the reality is we don't have the choice.
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  Speaker 2: You know, for the sake of our communities, whether it's
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  Speaker 2: water or transport or resilience, we have to take a
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  Speaker 2: long term view and for our industry we've got to
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  Speaker 2: have certainty. That's the only way that we can have
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  Speaker 2: confidence to invest in our people, our plant, our technology
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  Speaker 2: and so on. So there's canceled culture that's sort of
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: been a part of change of government, so that many
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  Speaker 2: decades just has to stop. You know.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: We talk about the Auckland Harbor Bridge. I was reading
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  Speaker 1: the other day about a bridge and Wanganui. They't need
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: to build to get across the Wanganui River. It's going
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: to cost about seventy million dollars. Do we need to
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  Speaker 1: toll everything to make it?
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  Speaker 2: To make it? Yeah, I think what the plan's clearly
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  Speaker 2: shows is that we've got this massive need for infrastructure.
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  Speaker 2: Two hundred and seventy five billion sitting at the pipeline.
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  Speaker 2: Lots of protests enough money. So you know, we have
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  Speaker 2: a very small tax payer base to fund our national infrastructure.
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  Speaker 2: We've got a very small rate payer base to fund
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  Speaker 2: our regional infrastructure. So we have to do things differently,
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  Speaker 2: and that means not just the idea of user pays,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: tolls and so on, but a more private investment. There's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of international pension funds that are interested in investment
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: and public private partnerships as well. We can't continue to
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  Speaker 2: rely on taxpayers and ratepayers to fund it.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: How do we stop the cost blowout?
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think there's a number of things. Having a
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  Speaker 2: clear pipeline allows us to look at more efficiencies in
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  Speaker 2: the delivery sector, making sure that we have a good
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  Speaker 2: sustainable workforce. One of the reasons that costs do increase
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: is because, as we face right now, we have a
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  Speaker 2: labor shortage and so inevitably the price of labor goes up.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: But having really efficient consenting our systems is really important too.
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  Speaker 2: And as a report notes, you know, consenting costs a
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: cost of skyrocket that they're over five or six percent
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  Speaker 2: of a project costs. That's about one point three billion
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  Speaker 2: a year and that alone, So all of these things
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  Speaker 2: together can bring more efficiency to project delivery.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Alan like your stuff, Alan Pollard several contractors in New
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  Speaker 1: Zealand tea for them.
• 3:16
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• 3:19
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• 3:22
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