After decades of underinvestment and short-term thinking, New Zealand’s first independent long-term infrastructure plan has landed — with something increasingly rare in Wellington: cross-party support , writes Henry Oliver in today’s excerpt from The Bulletin.
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The Infrastructure Commission’s National Infrastructure Plan, published in February and commissioned by the government in 2024, received its formal government response yesterday – and for once, parliament was broadly united in response, RNZ reported . The plan sets out 16 recommendations for overhauling how New Zealand plans, funds, and delivers infrastructure over the next 30 years.
New Zealand spends more on infrastructure as a share of GDP than any other OECD country, yet ranks 37th on spending efficiency, according to BusinessDesk . The commission’s prescription is a rebalancing – 60c of every dollar should go to maintenance and renewals rather than new builds, organised around four themes: planning for what the country can afford, looking after what it already owns, prioritising the right projects, and making it easier to build better.
The plan also identifies ten priorities, with hospital investment topping the list to meet the needs of an ageing population, alongside completing water network renewals, better managing infrastructure in areas facing population decline, and committing to a stable resource management framework.
Government acceptance
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop released the government’s response before a select committee scrutiny session yesterday, accepting all 16 recommendations – some in full, others in principle. Reforming land transport funding is among the biggest commitments – the National Land Transport Fund, which collects revenue from road user charges and fuel excise taxes, has not kept pace with demand, forcing increasing top-ups from general taxation, a situation Bishop has previously told the Post kept him “up at night”.
The new Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport has been tasked with developing reform proposals, with one possibility being regulating the road network like the electricity network, with independent price and investment oversight. On the 60-cents-in-the-dollar renewals target, Bishop acknowledged it was the right direction but not immediately achievable, pointing to rail as a sector already close, with around 66 cents in the dollar currently going to renewals on the Auckland and Wellington networks.
Cross-party support
The response is notable for its cross-party backing. Labour and the Greens both contributed forewords to the government’s response document – an arrangement Bishop said, in his foreword, reflected “the kind of mature approach to infrastructure that New Zealand needs and deserves”. “It’s not this government’s plan – it’s New Zealand’s plan.”
Labour’s Kieran McAnulty called the plan “a long-term, evidence-based path that doesn’t belong to any one government” and committed a future Labour government to honouring all contracted and funded work, the LNG terminal aside. The Greens backed all 16 recommendations in full but flagged three tensions with current government policy: the coalition’s transport priorities, doubts about whether the RMA replacement would provide the stability the plan requires, and the government’s commitment to an LNG terminal, which the commission itself had reservations about.
Additional commitments
The government has also committed to four further actions beyond the recommendations: reviewing the land transport funding system, legislating for agencies to publish long-term investment and asset management plans, requiring infrastructure providers to maintain up-to-date pipeline data, and strengthening public sector project leadership.
Legislative requirements for agency investment plans and multi-year budgeting come back to Cabinet by June 2027, with land transport funding reform out for public consultation by June 2028. Bishop will report to Cabinet on overall progress no later than the end of June next year. “Having a plan on its own is not enough,” he wrote in his foreword. “What matters is execution.”
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