Shane Jones: Planning for a prosperous society

Labour Party MP Shane Jones. Photo / Doug Sherring

Opinion

Well-targeted investment in infrastructure reduces production costs, improving our international competitiveness. This is vital if we expect our export-dominated economy to lead to higher wages and better jobs.

The link between infrastructure and productivity is obvious, but more challenging is establishing a "vision" to underscore infrastructure development.

Lessons from the past can help. We are still playing catch-up after that decade of under-investment during the 1990s. We must avoid "boom and bust" cycles and create a more cohesive plan that embraces both social and economic demands, and that wins public acceptance despite the inevitable expenditure involved in realising the vision. If we want a prosperous society, it must be underpinned with enduring infrastructure, funded in such a way that successive generations benefit.

It cannot be dictated by the whims of traffic engineers, or by a local MP who wants to ensure his mates can get to their baches in double-quick time.

The quality of our environment is a huge consideration. We should all value clean water, clean air, healthy food and warm houses, affordable and efficient public transport. These core Labour values are under threat. Population pressure is building. Resources are finite. It will not be easy to advance toward a modern, 21st century society in a way that also protects and enhances the environment.

We also need reliability in services we depend on; cost-effectiveness in investments; and to ensure the burden of paying for this infrastructure is evenly spread.

No modern Government should fear the skills and innovativeness of the private sector in terms of funding, but that sector must also be "defanged" of any misapprehension that the public purse is a soft touch. Labour was the first to explore potential PPP funding with the Waterview project. That door remains open. Waterview was one of a raft of Labour-initiated highway projects that National has rebranded as "roads of national significance" (RoNS). We also bought back KiwiRail and began exploring coastal shipping's untapped potential. National's "vision" is limited to RoNS - at the expense of provincial rail lines, and under-funding of public transport infrastructure and provincial road construction and maintenance.

Our parties are fundamentally different. Labour is looking to the future; to building an integrated, accessible and sustainable transport system that will address the challenges of climate change, energy insecurity, and fuel price fluctuations.

National puts all its faith in more motorways. Steven Joyce is sucked down by a bitumen fixation reminiscent of dinosaurs trapped in California's La Brea Tarpits. He's taking future generations of public transport initiatives down with him.

Labour will still invest in vital roading infrastructure, but won't waste money on unnecessary highways that lock us into a high-carbon future. And we'll focus on innovative funding. Legacy bonds, infrastructure bonds and Kiwi bonds are all likely to generate community support.

There are other important, sometimes conflicting issues too - like the perceived creep of red tape, and the right of communities to advocate for their own interests. We need to remove choke points when developing infrastructure, but we cannot fast-track taxpayer-funded irrigation schemes, for example, without considering their impact on already-polluted rivers.