Christoper Luxon, Chris Bishop and Simeon Brown. Photo: Lillian Hanly / RNZ
Analysis - "We're from New Zealand. We're here to learn." That was the declaration from Regional Development Minister Shane Jones upon arriving at Beca in Sydney.
He called himself and fellow ministers Chris Bishop and Simeon Brown, infrastructure and transport respectively, the "workhorses". Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who was leading the pack, said they travelled as a "singing quartet", though there wasn't much singing on the two-day trip. Mainly there was "learning" - about infrastructure, and about relationships.
Beca, a New Zealand company that has expanded into the Australian market, was the first of a number of infrastructure-related visits - including down a metro-tunnel-in-progress - for the prime minister's delegation on his third trip to Australia.
Like Jones, Luxon was there to learn. In fact he was adamant to do so, and incredibly exercised by the opportunity, telling anyone that would listen how much New Zealand can learn from Australia.
"We've really got to get the show on the road in New Zealand… and get some modern, reliable infrastructure built. That's why we want to learn from the government here about how they've gone about some of the projects, what's worked well, what hasn't worked well."
After Beca, there was learning with the New South Wales Premier Christopher Minns, before learning with Infrastructure NSW - a government agency tasked with overseeing and delivering large scale infrastructure projects for the state. That is, to not only recommend what types of projects the government should undertake or help pay for, but also to monitor through its delivery at every stage. That way, they can give early warning if there are issues around late delivery and cost overruns. They made things like the Sydney Metro, Sydney Light Rail and the second Sydney Harbour Tunnel happen.
Christoper Luxon and Simeon Brown. Photo: Lillian Hanly / RNZ
Infrastructure NSW board chair Graham Bradley said they spend well over AU$20 billion a year on new productive infrastructure - a level the current government had committed to for the next four years.
Certainty of funding is crucial for projects to be seen through to completion. Bradley said "stop-start" projects are very expensive, but also, certainty gives confidence to construction companies - especially foreign ones if they want to set up their business in your country.
He also said they've taken some of the partisanship out of projects by publicising their business case on government chosen projects, in order for the public to see the merits of the case from an independent organisation.
Bishop told travelling media the government was developing an infrastructure priority list which would outline independently assessed, credible projects the country needs.
"If you have an independently verified list of projects that infrastructure experts have said, 'this is what the country… needs', then political parties can then get behind those projects in government or in opposition."
This was an idea he'd learned from NSW Infrastructure.
"That's what we want to do… take the politics out of infrastructure," Luxon said.
"Because with our short political cycles and political intervention, we want to be able to make sure that we can depoliticise it. Yes, there might be conditions economically where you have to tighten up the envelope of what you can physically spend, but what's not in dispute is the relative priority of those projects and for the benefit of the country."
Luxon said the government could not fund the infrastructure deficit with the balance sheet New Zealand had. So how exactly does Luxon plan to build while decreasing spending? Public-private-partnerships.
Chris Bishop. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
Bishop signalled an announcement about a 'National Infrastructure Agency' in coming weeks, but said that was more around the funding and financing of infrastructure, and in particular, looking at bringing in domestic and offshore capital into projects.
"We actually need to be able to open up to private financing, in particular, and have more innovative funding and financing to be able to get things built," Luxon added.
The problem with private financing, stated Professor John Tookey from the School of Future Environments at AUT, is that it runs out.
John Tookey. Photo: https://www.aut.ac.nz/
Tookey said deliverability on large-scale projects in New Zealand was an ongoing problem. That's because everything was done on the "smell of an oily rag", and as a result, "expectations are sky-high, but the margins are super tight".
"The economies of scale just don't work in New Zealand, and… we can pitch big, we can go big on a whole bunch of different projects, but we have a very marginal ability to be able to fund things."
He knew using private money to fund public infrastructure sounded like a great plan, but "the amount of public infrastructure that's required maxes out the ability of private finance to be able to fund it".
He said that while it was a useful tool, it could not be the only tool, because it did not end up the best value for money on every project, "and it's quite naïve to consider that it would".
He acknowledged Sydney had achieved a lot, with various models of funding, but pointed out the population of New Zealand was the same as one city in Australia.
"They have economies of scale which do not translate directly into New Zealand. We're a long way from anything, anywhere else."
Tookey also wanted electoral politics out of big projects, calling for an Infrastructure Investment Agency that had cross-party support but acted independently.
"The reality is [sic] we talk in a political point of view in terms of three-year electoral cycles."
He pointed to Three Waters as an example, saying there needed to be consistency in the long-term plan. The coalition government was criticised for slashing a range of policies implemented by the previous government. Most new governments are guilty of this.
"So all the infrastructural components and… all the big picture, high-end infrastructure stuff, which takes multi years and multi parliaments to get decided, it gets kicked down the track and all the rest of it.
"We've got a limited amount of time, particularly if we talk about the climate change content type of stuff that we say is going to happen… successive governments have said it, and then they've done nothing about it."
Luxon says over and over again he wants to get things back on track. He wants to be the prime minister that does something about it - that's why he's there to learn.
The final infrastructure stop for the day was a visit to the new metro station under construction. The prime minister, high-vis donned and hard-hat at the ready, listened eagerly during a presentation about the project, asking multiple questions throughout. He then spent a considerable amount of time in a dusty, dirty, loud tunnel, learning about how earth gets shifted to make way for trains. It would have been difficult to hear, but he listened to all the explanations offered.
The thing about learning is enacting what has been learned and transforming that knowledge into decisions and action. Now well into the third quarter of his first year in government, Luxon will argue on many initiatives his government has already delivered.
But when it comes to large-scale infrastructure projects, the best chance of delivery and a legacy beyond the here and now will be to set in motion and fully fund a pipeline of work that travels well past his own time in office.
