Infrastructure
- Business Central
- Oct 23, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 5, 2024
The key driver behind RMA reform, proposed changes to the Public Works Act, opening up overseas investment and Roads of National Significance (RoNS) is the government’s drive to develop infrastructure faster and begin addressing New Zealand’s longstanding infrastructure deficit.
The creation of the National Infrastructure Agency (NIA) should be a mechanism to lessen the degree of politics in our infrastructure debate. By procuring a programme of works set out and prioritised by the National Infrastructure Commission, the agency will create the national pipeline of works that both sides of the political divide say they want.
That established pipeline will reduce the ability and temptation for one government with a separate set of priorities to come in and scrap the previous government’s infrastructure plans.
Scrapping roads for rail and then reversing that decision just six years later is no way to plan or develop critical infrastructure. Insisting that even routine infrastructure maintenance works need consents, or renewing consents in comparatively short timeframes for long- term infrastructure, also makes little sense.
The NIA will also look at multiple funding and financing options for new projects and become a centre of excellence and advice for local and central government agencies looking to procure their own projects.
All of those will speed up and give certainty to the process of building and paying for our critical infrastructure.
The Government’s 17 Roads of National Significance are also a key part of the infrastructure pipeline, easing the movement of people and freight while providing resilience for the longer-term.
Four of these projects are in the Business Central region, with work on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway now underway.
Three others, still in the planning stages, will impact the Greater Wellington region, with plans to deliver a second Mt Victoria Tunnel, a Petone to Granada Link Road connection State Highways 1 and 2, and improvements from Ōtaki to north of Levin.