North projects to be reprioritised

Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is assembling a list of Northland projects to be fast-tracked. Picture / Michael Cunningham

Tens of millions of dollars' worth of planned infrastructure projects around Northland are set to be reprioritised with those promising the most jobs in the shortest timeframes likely to be fast-tracked.

Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones also revealed the Government is considering how to speed up projects by, for example, passing special legislation or allowing Kiwirail and NZTA to issue their own consents.

Once the lockdown was over Northland would ''suffer grievously unless we turbocharge and regard job creation as something akin to a grand prix race'', he said.

As of the end of February more than $476 million had been committed from the Government's Provincial Growth Fund to Northland projects. Another $1 billion had been pledged to the region from a $12b government infrastructure spend-up announced in January.

Some PGF projects, such as wharf upgrades in the Bay of Islands, have been completed but Jones has been frustrated with the slow pace of others.

Ministers would meet on May 1 to decide the new priority rankings.

Projects which were ''shovel ready'' and would create the greatest number of jobs in the shortest time would be fast-tracked to absorb the unemployed back into the economy.

''We need to impose on ourselves harsh deadlines. We spend far too much time on process.''

It was possible some projects, which had made no progress for a year or more, would no longer go ahead.

Jones said options being considered this week for avoiding Resource Management Act delays included special legislation allowing ministers to issue consents, as was used to build Wellington's Pukeahu war memorial, or allowing NZTA and Kiwirail to ''self-consent'' for projects under $20m.

The first Northland project to be granted PGF funding was the Waipapa roundabout on SH10. The Government considered the project in December 2017 and the site was blessed in January 2019, but progress so far amounted to ''a few road cones and scratches along the side of the road'', Jones said.

''Projects like that need to proceed with absolute pace. We have also agreed to fund roundabouts at Kawakawa and Puketona. These are relatively small projects but unless we get them started really quickly there's a danger many of our Northland families will be consigned to the dole queue while planners and resource consent officials move at a snail-like pace.''

Jones said the Government had also been asked to fast-track plans to upgrade Whangārei Hospital. Those requests were being forwarded to Mark Binns, the new chairman of Crown Infrastructure Partners, for consideration.

Treasury officials have predicted unemployment across New Zealand could rise from 4.3 per cent before the lockdown to "well into double digits" as border closures and the Covid-19 lockdown force businesses to close or lay off staff.

The single biggest Northland project announced in January's infrastructure spend-up was the $692m four-laning of SH1 from Whangārei to Marsden Pt.