Successive governments have announced unfunded projects, allowed business-case costs to balloon and cancelled each other’s pet projects. National’s National Roads of Significance was gone under Labour after the 2017 election. Auckland Light Rail was cancelled after National formed its Government in 2023.
Sunk costs are lost. Break fees also result when it comes to a major cancellation like the Cook Strait ferry contract.
This impacts on the taxpayer, who is “tailend Charlie” for this money-wasting nonsense. But it also has an impact on how potential investors view New Zealand.
So, it is long past time to grow up.
Refreshingly, it appears this younger generation of political opponents are prepared to do exactly that.
The two politicians are of a similar age, Bishop being 41 and McAnulty 40.
While it may be a step too far (for their bosses) to characterise their relationship as a political bromance, they do deal with each other frequently. Bishop is Leader of the House and McAnulty holds the Shadow Leader role.
At the conference, McAnulty kicked off by saying Labour has been consistent in the stance it will honour any contract that has been entered into if it becomes Government after the 2026 election.
Bishop distinguished bipartisanship from forming a “bipartisan pipeline”.
“Instead, move towards the idea that we need bipartisan consensus on the idea that governments of all flavours should use best practice to plan, select, fund and finance, deliver and look after infrastructure.
“That’s not the case at the moment, and that’s what I’m working hard to fix.”
Both committed to finding a consensus, Bishop saying the National Infrastructure Plan will only be successful if it’s accepted and adopted across successive governments over the long term.
McAnulty replied: “We can’t be naive about it. You’re never going to get a situation where the National and Labour parties are going to agree on every single aspect and every detail of every project.”
However, they could find bipartisanship when it comes to the overall framework.
One confronting issue is the short election cycle of three years.
Former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar sympathised with New Zealand politicians’ plight of having to shepherd major projects through within a three-year parliamentary cycle.
“Four years is better. I think five is probably optimum,” he told the symposium, pointing out that when you’re a year out from an election, “all that politicians are thinking about is the election, understandably”.
“So that really gives you two years to govern, and it might take the first few months just to get things up and running … I believe there’s some discussions about making it four. I think you should do that. You should definitely make it five if you can.”
New Zealand is likely to get a chance to vote next year in a referendum on the introduction of a four-year term.
Varadkar – who spoke via video link - served two terms as Taoiseach, from 2017-20 and 2022-24. Through the Project Ireland 2040 plan, the budget for investment in public infrastructure more than doubled during his time as Prime Minister from under €6 billion (about $9.5b at 2017 exchange rates) a year to more than €12b a year with major investments in transport, rural broadband, energy, climate action, healthcare and education.
Like Varadkar, Singapore’s Andrew Tan also advised that a bipartisan approach to forming national infrastructure strategies and an associated programme is essential.
Tan is a former managing director at Temasek International, a former chief executive of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and a former Principal Private Secretary to former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
“Like Singapore, New Zealand’s ability to attract foreign investments, talent and innovation to the new areas of the economy will be key drivers of future growth.
“You can’t win across every field, but you can focus on some key sectors where you have the right to win.
“Government can and should take the lead in setting national objectives with the backing of the private sector.”
If rationality can be injected here, why stop with infrastructure?
At the Herald’s Mood of the Boardroom last year, Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Labour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds agreed to have a discussion about the sustainability of New Zealand’s current superannuation system.
That came unstuck when it became clear Willis wanted to put the age of eligibility on the table.
Time for more adults in the room?
