Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Simon Court: Secretary to the Minister for RMA shares that infrastructure will be the new focus in the next quarterly plan

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Simon Court: Secretary to the Minister for RMA shares that infrastructure will be the new focus in the next quarterly plan · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: The government's released it's Q four action Plan. It's got
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  Speaker 1: forty three points and it's the ones we're looking at
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  Speaker 1: this morning. RMA reform and establishing the National Infrastructure Agency,
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  Speaker 1: which is coming by Christmas. We are promised in this
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  Speaker 1: action plan. Simon Court is act MP and Under Secretary
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  Speaker 1: to the Minister responsible for RMA reform and for Infrastructure.
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  Speaker 1: Simon good morning, Good morning, Ryan, thanks for being with me.
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  Speaker 1: The Infrastructure Agency that we want to set up by Christmas.
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  Speaker 1: Have you got any idea on what it's going to
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  Speaker 1: cost us?
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  Speaker 2: No, but it's the vital that we do have an
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  Speaker 2: agency that can coordinate funding from the private sector that
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  Speaker 2: we need to put it into the PPP projects, and
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  Speaker 2: that has the expertise, say to accept and review market
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  Speaker 2: lead proposals when the private sector has a really really
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  Speaker 2: good idea and they want to take it to government. Say,
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  Speaker 2: for example, when I was in Texas in twenty twenty two,
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  Speaker 2: a Spanish consortium said, look, we've provided a proposal to
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  Speaker 2: upgrade State Highway one and upgrade the Northern Express Busway
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  Speaker 2: at no cost to the taxpayer. All we wanted was
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  Speaker 2: a fifty year right to operate it. There was no
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  Speaker 2: one to receive that proposal. So the National Infrastructure Agency
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  Speaker 2: is intended to be the front door for really really
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  Speaker 2: good ideas and the coordinator between private and institutional finance
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  Speaker 2: and the big profit private partnership.
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  Speaker 1: Had any offers so far? Did you've announced that it's coming.
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  Speaker 2: Well, what we heard at the Building Nations conference, which
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  Speaker 2: is New Zealand's big infrastructure conference about a month ago,
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  Speaker 2: was it this massive desire to participate in these big
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  Speaker 2: public private partnership projects. But you haven't had challenge.
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  Speaker 1: You haven't had any specific offers that you're aware of
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  Speaker 1: the government has any specific offers from interested parties.
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  Speaker 2: I'm aware that there are a number of parties that
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  Speaker 2: are lining up to make submissions when we've got the
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  Speaker 2: National Infrastructure Agency open.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know how many or what their names are?
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  Speaker 2: And I certainly don't. And that's the that's one of
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  Speaker 2: the challenges is maintaining privty and if people have really
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  Speaker 2: really good ideas, we don't want them to be in
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  Speaker 2: a situation where they present their folder of good ideas
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  Speaker 2: to government and then it gets shopped around all the
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  Speaker 2: competitors or or treated in a way that underds.
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  Speaker 1: Have you guys spoken to Labor about the establishment of
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  Speaker 1: this year. Have you have you guys been in contact
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  Speaker 1: with Barbi Edmonds et cetera, because it was all it
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  Speaker 1: all needed to be come by our according to the
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  Speaker 1: Expert Advisory Panel.
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  Speaker 2: Well, there is cross party support for delivering infrastructure. Different
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  Speaker 2: political parties have different priorities, but the coalition's priority is
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  Speaker 2: to get major roads of national significance consented and built totally.
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  Speaker 1: And I get that. But the problem is you guys
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  Speaker 1: start it, they stop it. The next one starts that,
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  Speaker 1: they stop it. So you need to be an agreeance.
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  Speaker 1: Have you guys spoken to Labor or not.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I've certainly spoken to people at Barbara Edmonds on
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  Speaker 2: a regular basis. But here's the challenge for lay Ryan.
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  Speaker 2: They need to grow up. In countries like Australia, there
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  Speaker 2: is no there is no dispute where the roads are
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  Speaker 2: part of the nation's infrastructure mix. For some reason, the
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  Speaker 2: left wing in New Zealand still want to argue about
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  Speaker 2: where the roads are. A good idea. They just need
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  Speaker 2: to grow up and get with the pronoun.
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  Speaker 1: I think everybody needs to grow up. Really, let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about Dunedin Hospital there. Why don't we have a privately
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  Speaker 1: owned hospital belt.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's a really good question. I have a delegation
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  Speaker 2: to look into the key options and to develop policy
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  Speaker 2: to make it much easier for those kind of projects
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  Speaker 2: to go ahead with private capital. At the moment, the
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  Speaker 2: government is really short of money. But public private partnerships
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  Speaker 2: are action. They're not just to get more money, they're
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  Speaker 2: actually to get better whole of life maintenance outcomes, bring
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  Speaker 2: more innovation, and.
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  Speaker 1: There's private companies that do this. They build health care facilities,
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  Speaker 1: they build hospitals, and then we rent them back. Would
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  Speaker 1: you like to see that in some way? Like Dneden, Well, I.
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  Speaker 2: Think that's one of the options that should be on
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  Speaker 2: the table. Is necessarily well, it may not necessarily apply
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  Speaker 2: to to need, but it certainly should in the health
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  Speaker 2: or folio education, Fortolio Social Services going forward.
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  Speaker 1: Does nationally agree with that because at the moment they've owned,
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  Speaker 1: they've limited it to acc super fund, etc.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're developing the Public Partnership Policy Model update and
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  Speaker 2: that's going to be available in the next couple of months,
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  Speaker 2: and at that point it's going to be quite clear
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  Speaker 2: there's a simpler pathway for a whole of private investors
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  Speaker 2: and really good quality builders to get together and provide
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  Speaker 2: these solutions to government over a longer period of time.
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  Speaker 1: You're giving me the scoope simon, aren't you. You're saying
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  Speaker 1: that hospitals and health are both fair game for private
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  Speaker 1: private capital to build PPPs, to come and build them
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  Speaker 1: and we rent them back.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's a government policy to consider better use of
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  Speaker 2: private nes situtional capital and delivering infrastructure. That's no secret, right.
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  Speaker 2: But one of the one of the things we've learned
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  Speaker 2: from looking at Transmission Galley and some of these other
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  Speaker 2: projects is actually the risk balance isn't right between the
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  Speaker 2: crown and the private sector. There's some risk that the
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  Speaker 2: crown should should take hold of and retain and then
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  Speaker 2: you actually get a better value, smarter outcome from the
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  Speaker 2: private sector. So those are one of the things that
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  Speaker 2: we're working on and also making sure the collaboration up
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  Speaker 2: front is going to deliver the best design and the
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  Speaker 2: best value for money. So in the next in the
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  Speaker 2: next couple of months, we'll be making an announcement about that.
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  Speaker 1: But just to be clear, National has so far limited
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  Speaker 1: funding or ideas for funding for health and education to
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  Speaker 1: the a SEC Fund, the super Fund and Key we saver.
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  Speaker 1: Are you saying that it could be open to private
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  Speaker 1: enterprise companies like vital.
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  Speaker 2: Well in the education space, you know there are already
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  Speaker 2: education PPPs, so at Waktapu School, you know in Auckland,
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  Speaker 2: at Hobsonville. We're private capital, not just ACC and these
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  Speaker 2: other government funds are already engaged. So we just want
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that there's a simple pathway to do
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  Speaker 2: it and that the Crown is ready, because the Crown
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  Speaker 2: hasn't necessarily been ready to have this engagement. The last
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  Speaker 2: six years have seen the withering away of Crown's capability
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  Speaker 2: to engage with the private sector. We're making sure that
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  Speaker 2: we're ready to do that and we'll have a policy
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  Speaker 2: announcement take in the next couple of months.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Simon, thank you very much for your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning. That's act MP and Under Secretary for IMA
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  Speaker 1: and Infrastructure, Simon Court. For more from News Talks EDB,
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