A compromise between National and Labour would survive a change of Government and give the sector confidence. Photo / File
A compromise between National and Labour would survive a change of Government and give the sector confidence. Photo / File
Opinion by Kieran McAnulty
Kieran McAnulty is Labour’s infrastructure spokesperson.
THE FACTS
The Building Nations conference is being held on August 6 and 7 in Wellington
Infometrics analysis shows New Zealand could save between $2 billion and $4.7b each year by reducing infrastructure uncertainty
A Draft Infrastructure Plan lays out scenarios for New Zealand’s population reaching nearly eight million by 2050
There’s a fair bit of blame floating around at the moment. No matter what the question is, the Government’s answer is to point the finger at someone else.
People don’t want blame, they want solutions.
When people see civil contracting firms go into liquidation week after week, theydon’t want fingers pointed and questions left unanswered.
When we see thousands of young people leave the country in search of work, political point scoring to try and deflect responsibility just doesn’t cut it.
We need to know how roads are going to grow with our population and connect our main cities to the regions. We need clarity on where schools will be built as suburbs pop up. And we need confirmation on how our public health system will deliver access as people live longer, and small towns expand.
The sector needs to know that there will be enough work to retain, train and attract staff. And investors need confidence.
Stats NZ have confirmed 18,000 people have lost their jobs in construction. Many of them have left the country because there is no longer any work. A big chunk of these workers were trained under the recently cut Apprenticeship Boost initiative, but with the pool of work going dry all we have ended up doing is training Australia’s tradespeople.
If we are to ever get these workers back, the stop-start approach that we’ve seen over the last few years has to stop.
We can’t build a country if the plan changes every time the government does.
That’s why Labour asked to attend the Government’s International Investment Summit. We heard the feedback from the sector loud and clear that all this Government’s paused and cancelled projects hit confidence hard.
At the summit we met with potential investors and told them that a change of government next year will not impact any investment they make. If the project is underway then the next Labour Government will honour it.
To give the sector certainty, we contributed to the foreword of the Government’s New Zealand Public Private Partnership Framework document outlining our openness to this approach as a procurement tool. We had hoped this would help dial down the petty political point-scoring we so often see come out of Parliament.
We will continue to push for genuine bipartisanship. So many ministers think bipartisanship is simply agreeing with them, but true bipartisanship is working together to develop policy that will survive successive governments and give long-term certainty to the infrastructure sector.
This long-term certainty is more important than politics – its people’s jobs, their homes, the resources they rely on.
That’s why we haven’t let our frustration with the Government scrapping Labour’s Resource Management reform get in the way. That was a political decision that ended up impacting confidence and certainty – a two-year delay for no real reason.
The best thing that can happen next is National and Labour working together on the policy development of the new replacement for the Resource Management Act. We have seen what happens when National gives in to the whims of Act or NZ First. They don’t need to do that here. A compromise between National and Labour would survive a change of Government and give the sector confidence.
We aren’t naive – we know that in politics it is unrealistic to suggest we will agree on everything. And there are things we will remain critical of. We think it was a mistake to put a stop to so many house builds, for example. Ratepayers and civil contractors are now facing the real cost of the Government scrapping water reform. And we stand by our view that the Government’s big infrastructure announcement last month was a PR stunt, re-announcing projects that were already committed to.
But the long and short of it is that we can’t build a country if the plan changes every time the government does.
With the infrastructure and construction sectors struggling; local government operating in ever-changing circumstances and under increasing financial difficulties; unemployment up and company liquidations rising, our message to the Government is simple: we are keen to do our bit, meet us in the middle. And we ask the sector to put some pressure on them to do so. After all,we all agree that’s what is needed.
Kieran McAnulty is Labour’s infrastructure spokesperson.
