The Commission’s work programme has sought to deepen the understanding of infrastructure investment, community expectations and needs. We now know more about how much we spend on infrastructure, what outcomes we achieve from investment and who pays for this spending. We have a greater awareness of what infrastructure assets New Zealand has, our approach to asset management and the ways we can improve. Critical components of this work which help form the National Infrastructure Plan include:

• Developing the National Infrastructure Pipeline. The Pipeline captures data on a growing share of all infrastructure projects in delivery and planning stages. Established in 2020 with around 500 active projects from 21 infrastructure providers, the Pipeline now features over 8,100 active projects from more than 110 providers, representing $207 billion in value. Across its evolution, we’ve tracked roughly 22,000 projects through their lifecycle from early scoping to completion or closure. With this evidence base, we know more about infrastructure projects now than we did when developing the Strategy.
• Establishing New Zealand’s first national Infrastructure Priorities Programme. Built on principles of transparency and independence the programme is a structured assurance programme for infrastructure projects, or initiatives that avoid the need for infrastructure. We have now accepted applications for two rounds of the Infrastructure Priorities Programme and will provide a ‘menu’ of proposals and projects that will meet New Zealand’s strategic objectives, represent good value for money and can be delivered.
• Developing and providing independent advice to government. As the Government’s independent advisor on infrastructure, we play a role in the Treasury’s Investment Management System, which helps to review and advise on central government infrastructure investment decisions as part of the Budget.
• Advising on a diverse set of projects: We have engaged with project teams across the country, from Northern Expressway to Transmission Gully to Dunedin Hospital. Doing so has deepened our connections within the infrastructure sector, including public and private entities involved in infrastructure. We have also published what we have learned in several reports, which are aimed at public sector organisations that manage, plan, deliver, and maintain infrastructure, particularly those in roles responsible for or involved with procurement decisions or supply chain management.
• Establishing the Infrastructure Leaders Network. This is a peer network designed specifically for senior public sector infrastructure leaders. The network provides a trusted forum for leaders to connect, share insights and learn from one another. It has played a valuable role in testing and providing feedback on our early thinking during the development of the Plan. Its input has deepened our understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by public sector infrastructure providers.
• Undertaking research. Our work has included New Zealand’s first comprehensive baseline analysis of the infrastructure workforce and asset management maturity. This is a baseline study demonstrating what assets we have across sectors, how investment levels have changed over 150 years and the costs to maintain it all; and providing a deeper understanding of community expectations through our ‘What’s fair?’ research programme.
• Monitoring progress against the New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy. The Commission published its first monitoring report of the Strategy in 2024.^[32] The aim of our monitoring work is to track progress against the Strategy, as well as to identify areas where more effort is needed. The first monitoring report identified many areas of progress, as well as areas where more must be done if we are to get the most out of our infrastructure investment.
• Deepening our understanding of Māori engagement in infrastructure. There is more to be done, but we undertook research to explore how government infrastructure providers and Māori engage, and work, with each other on the planning and development of infrastructure. The need for this research was identified in the Infrastructure Strategy. In developing the Plan we have sought advice from experts in Te Ao Māori and infrastructure to advise us as we identify ways to incorporate Te Ao Māori into the final Plan and the Commission’s wider work programme.
• Testing our thinking. In 2024, the Commission sought feedback on our emerging thinking on developing a National Infrastructure Plan.

This work is the backbone of the draft National Infrastructure Plan. While the Strategy canvassed the broader issues facing infrastructure, we are now concentrating on infrastructure investment and what is needed to achieve our goals over the next generation.