The infrastructure sector isn’t delivering the outcomes New Zealanders deserve and expect. Each year we invest just over $20 billion on infrastructure, yet on a dollar-for-dollar basis we achieve less than many of our more efficient international peers. Simply investing more won’t solve the problem. Unless we strengthen the foundations of our investment system, adding extra funding is a bit like pumping air into a punctured bike tyre – it won’t reliably get us where we need to go. 

The National Infrastructure Plan provides a way forward. It sets out system-level recommendations alongside more immediate actions to transform how New Zealand plans and delivers infrastructure. It charts a course toward a future where decision-makers use our Forward Guidance to direct resources to the sectors with the greatest needs; where we prioritise looking after what we already have and prepare for multiple possible futures through credible, fundable long-term asset management and investment plans; where a consolidated and strengthened assurance system ensures investments address the right problems in a cost-effective way; and where the National Infrastructure Pipeline is used to coordinate and sequence investments across the system. 

Our advice will become more targeted as the system improves. The Plan summarises the historical and future investment drivers for 17 sectors (see Appendix One), ranging from land transport and health to ports and airports. This highlights how the information in the Plan can be used to diagnose and prioritise issues and opportunities at the sectoral level. As long-term planning matures, the combination of top-down Forward Guidance and bottom-up agency plans will become a powerful tool for decision-makers. Better planning processes and data will give much clearer visibility of what investments are needed, where, and when. Commercial infrastructure providers are accountable to regulators, capital providers and customers. Mature planning processes and well-informed funding decisions will help central government providers achieve more commercial levels of transparency and accountability, and ensure that investments deliver the right infrastructure in the right place at the right time.

The work doesn’t stop here. The Commission will continue to refine and improve its tools – our Forward Guidance, the Infrastructure Priorities Programme and the Pipeline. At the same time, we will work in partnership with the public and private sectors to realise the vision of an improved infrastructure system based on the recommendations and actions in this Plan. Change will not be easy. It will require dedication, courage and commitment from people across the sector. 

Finding common ground is possible. New Zealand does not need to agree on every individual project, but achieving consensus on the bones of a better system – one where we look after what we’ve got and cost-effectively plan and deliver new projects – would be a giant leap forward. It would help to free us from short-term planning cycles, put us in a stronger position to navigate challenges like the ageing population and the impacts of climate change, and create a more dependable pipeline for the 100,000 skilled workers we depend on to deliver our infrastructure. 

Getting it right means we can do more. Getting more value from every dollar we spend means more hospital beds, more reliable transport, more renewable energy to power the economy, and more resilient communities. Ultimately, it is about people. If we want New Zealanders to thrive, we need an infrastructure system that delivers for them. 

What success could look like

The National Infrastructure Plan is ambitious for New Zealand. Delivering on this Plan would reshape how the system works in practice. The outcomes could look like this:

• A mature and credible National Infrastructure Pipeline that informs planning and decision-making. Leading to improved market certainty, better project sequencing, and a clearer understanding of workforce and supply-chain needs.
• A comprehensive menu of investable, high-quality infrastructure projects endorsed through the Infrastructure Priorities Programme. Leading to better project selection and improved value for every dollar spent.
• Sophisticated Forward Guidance embedded in Government decision-making. Leading to a better understanding of what’s coming, so that we can budget and plan smarter and manage assets in line with future needs.
• Stronger public-sector project leadership and sophisticated central government clients. Leading to more projects being delivered on time and on budget.
• Central government agencies with credible, fundable long-term asset management and investment plans. Leading to better stewardship of existing assets and more effective allocation of new investment.
• Network and economic infrastructure funded largely by direct beneficiaries. Leading to smarter investment, better use of existing networks, opportunities to share savings with users, and more funding available for the social infrastructure we need.
• A well-designed, stable regulatory system that enables infrastructure. Leading to greater certainty, lower costs and delays, and a more confident infrastructure sector able to invest in the workforce and resources it needs.

The National Infrastructure Plan can point the way – real change depends on all of us taking the next steps.

As required by legislation, the Government has 180 days to formally respond to the Plan after we deliver it to the Minister for Infrastructure. The Commission will then monitor progress against accepted recommendations.