New Zealand needs a cultural shift in infrastructure planning – Michelle McCormick

The Government is looking at ways to align regional spatial planning, improve housing development processes and introduce nationally standardised zones. This will help reduce the endless local variations that currently make infrastructure delivery so complicated and costly. Photo / Michael Craig

THE FACTS

• The draft National Infrastructure Plan was released in June from the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission Te Waihanga.
• Between 2010 and 2019, New Zealand’s investment in infrastructure represented the highest proportion of GDP among OECD nations.
• But New Zealand ranked near the bottom of the OECD for return on that investment.

I love working in infrastructure. It’s a sector that touches every New Zealander, every day, whether it’s getting goods to our supermarkets, enabling exports, connecting people to jobs, education, health services or simply keeping the lights on.

Everyone also has an opinion on infrastructure, especially when things don’t work as they should.

Right now, we have the opportunity to get infrastructure working better for New Zealand. There is significant, even generational, change happening – and while some of it may not grab headlines like a new bridge or hospital, these reforms are critical if we want to build the infrastructure our communities need more efficiently and more effectively.

A sober reminder of the scale of our challenge came in June with the release of the draft National Infrastructure Plan from the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission Te Waihanga.

The plan lays bare a troubling paradox; between 2010 and 2019, New Zealand’s investment in infrastructure represented the highest proportion of GDP among OECD nations, yet we ranked near the bottom of the OECD for return on that investment.

In short, we’re not getting bang for our buck and we need to do much better.

Part of that comes down to how hard it is to build things here. Over recent years, the time and cost of securing planning approvals, designations and resource consents has risen significantly.

We often hear frustration about the layers of complexity, duplicated processes and the inability to get timely decisions. Unfortunately, the consequences are felt by everyone stuck in traffic or using our deteriorating public assets.

The good news is that change is under way.

Infrastructure New Zealand policy director Michelle McCormick.

This year alone, we’ve seen a steady stream of initiatives to modernise the infrastructure system. The Government has begun reshaping the regulatory landscape with a major legislative reform programme.

We have seen commencement of the new Fast-track Approvals legislation, which should help accelerate some critical projects by aligning all consents and other regulatory approvals via a one-stop-shop.

A new National Policy Statement for Infrastructure will, for the first time, provide consistent national direction for how infrastructure is planned and delivered, alongside other important resource considerations.

This will mean a more consistent approach and treatment of critical infrastructure, especially for national network operators such as NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA), KiwiRail and Transpower, or other infrastructure owners and operators who currently need to convince 67 different councils of the need for asset development and standard maintenance activities.

Phase two of the reform to the Resource Management Act (RMA) includes long-overdue updates to 14 existing and seven new national direction instruments.

Infrastructure-related settings changes include telecommunications, renewable electricity generation, electricity transmission standards and the going-for-housing-growth package.

These may sound like technical changes, but they matter. They help create certainty and reduce unnecessary duplication and overly bureaucratic approval processes. They also speed up decision-making, all while ensuring environmental standards are maintained.

A cultural shift is also needed. For too long, our infrastructure system has been set up to say “no” by adding hurdles and rarely removing them.

The Resource Management Act has spawned 30 years of complex rules and fragmented planning across the country.

While the current amendments and new and updated National Direction instruments will help, what is needed is a new planning and environmental management system that enables good projects to proceed, with appropriate safeguards.

Getting to “yes, with conditions” must become the norm.

That won’t happen overnight. Improving the rules is just one piece of the puzzle. We also need high-quality, timely environmental monitoring so decisions are based on reliable data.

Reform of the Environmental Reporting Act is on the table and it’s vital that this leads to better, more transparent information to support infrastructure decision-making.

Importantly, the Government is also looking at ways to align regional spatial planning, improve housing development processes and introduce nationally standardised zones.

This will help reduce the endless local variations that currently make infrastructure delivery so complicated and costly.

As the Minister for Infrastructure has pointed out, “across New Zealand, there are 1175 different kinds of zones. In the entirety of Japan, which uses standardised zoning, there are 13 zones”.

New Zealand is special but I don’t think we are that special. Simplifying the field, removing unnecessary over-complication and making the rules clearer for everyone can ease the way for infrastructure development and address at least one of the causes of our high project costs.

The avalanche of legislative change is progressing.

Work on the replacement RMA in the form of two new acts is well under way but is unlikely to be completed this parliamentary term. These changes will lay the building blocks for a better system, but installing a new regime that has cross-party support is critical.

Our system settings must keep improving, the reforms we make must be implemented properly and we must hold on to the momentum for change.

These are complex shifts and signal a new maturity in how we think about infrastructure; not as stand-alone projects solving isolated problems, but as part of our broad economic and social fabric.

The reality is that system reforms don’t get people excited like seeing shovels in the ground, but in many ways, they are even more essential.

The way we regulate, plan, consent and deliver infrastructure in New Zealand is riddled with complexity, delay and cost. This doesn’t just hurt the Government and our local councils, it harms every New Zealander getting to work, waiting for a hospital bed or learning in a substandard classroom.

Many of today’s changes won’t be visible to the public immediately, but they are essential if we want to lift our performance, attract investment and deliver the infrastructure New Zealanders require over the long term.

Infrastructure New Zealand is an advertising sponsor of the Herald’s Infrastructure report.