Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Nick Leggett: Infrastructure New Zealand Chief Executive on the Infrastructure Commission's draft plan

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Nick Leggett: Infrastructure New Zealand Chief Executive on the Infrastructure Commission's draft plan · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're not getting bang for our buck when it comes
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: to spending on infrastructure. I mean, tell us something we
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: don't know. This is according to the Infrastructure Commission's first
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: draft for the first National Infrastructure Plan. It reckons we're
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: spending and the spending we are doing at the moment
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: puts US in the top ten percent of developed countries,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: but what we're getting for it puts US in the
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  Speaker 1: bottom ten percent. Nick Leggett is Infrastructure New Zealand CEO
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: with us this morning. Hey Nick, Hi, Ryan, are you
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: getting sick of hearing reports and list of things we
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: need to be doing? I mean, why don't we just
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: do something?
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  Speaker 2: I think that is a bloody good point, Brian. Look,
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  Speaker 2: this is a good report. There's a lot in here
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  Speaker 2: and what we've got to do is act on it,
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  Speaker 2: as you say, because if plans and reports were the answer,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: New Zealand would have solved all its problems. Right, we
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: have to as a as a nation, I think, grab
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the ball by the horns. You know, we don't look
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: after what we've got and you know we will often
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: talk about infrastructure New Zealand infrastructure deficit. Not this report
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: plainly points out is that the majority of that deficit
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: is actually with the assets that we have that we
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: already own and that we don't look after, and we
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: don't invest in their maintenance and renewals. And you know,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: I think New Zealanders know that because they fell in
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: roads and rail and water and schools and hospitals. The
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  Speaker 2: plan also notes quite prominently that big parts of government
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: don't actually even have a record of what they own,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and therefore they don't have a plan about how they're
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: going to maintain it. So we build stuff, we're very
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: good at that, and then we don't fix up. And
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: then then then you go to the questions, well what
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: do you do about all this? To be conscious?
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Do we not build stuff?
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Then?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, do we just stick with what we've got
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and fix it up?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Well, that's a big there's a big part. That's a
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: big part of it. I think it's we're always onto
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: the next thing, right, which is not bad, but if
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: you want to get the best value out of what
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: you build, maintaining it is a good start. So we're
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: not good at that. And part of it is because
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: we just lack of focus and we move on to
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  Speaker 2: the next thing. So we've got to change that and
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  Speaker 2: we've got to get into asset management planning, which is
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a term that obviously those people that do assets are
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: interested in. Most of us don't know what that means,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: but it is about knowing what you own, investing in it,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: and then putting the money aside and not spending the
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: money because it is what we do. We raid the
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: piggy bank every time something comes along it's more exciting,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and we spend it on that. We don't spend it
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: back on the assets that you often can't see. A
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: big part of what the country's got to do is
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: get beyond political cycles and build the system that supports infrastructure,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: you know, planning it, making the decisions, sticking to the decision.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: What we do very well is, you know, there's an election,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: there's a change of government, and everything stops or gets canceled.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: But the money that we spend on stuff that never
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: happens costs us dearly. You talk about that bottom we
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: get the bottom ten percent of value in the OECD.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: A big part of it, not all of it, is
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: because we don't stick to things, and so we do
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: have to build more cross party support for the system
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: and the plan into the future. About what we've got
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: to stick.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: To that, and we've been saying honestly, like I appreciate
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: what you're saying and for you coming on the show,
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: but honestly, I feel like I've heard this a thousand times.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, but you know where the change A
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: thousand times?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I know? But do you know? But Ryan, you know
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: where the change is. It's not with politicians, although they
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: do have to change. It's us as members of the
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: public citizens demanding that politicians behave differently and that we
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: build a proper system and we take a much more
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: long term view about what we own and what we
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: need to build and how we get how we get.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: There, Nick, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: coming on. Nick Leggett. Infrastructure New Zealand Chief Executive be Moore.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks
• 4:03
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• 4:06
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