John MacDonald: Bipartisan infrastructure planning? Pfft

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

I love the Government’s thinking on infrastructure planning.

It wants us to have a 30-year plan for big projects that politicians, generally, wouldn’t be able to muck around with. Which, of course, would give us all a lot of certainty.

It would also give the people who invest their own money in infrastructure certainty, as well.

So a great idea. Because we are seeing right now how hopeless we have become at long-term infrastructure planning, and the consequences seem to be coming at us left, right and centre.

The inter-island ferries, electricity infrastructure, the state of our roads. The band-aid approach has got us in this mess.

Not to mention all the political pipedreams and political interference. So, why wouldn’t you try and get a long-term plan that everyone pretty much signs up to? It’s a no-brainer.

And, to try and make it happen, the Government is setting-up a new National Infrastructure Agency.

Where I see it coming unstuck, though, is getting the politicians to agree on a 30-year plan.

Even on the day it was announced, we had Labour complaining that they weren’t given enough warning or weren’t consulted enough before the Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop told the world about it yesterday.

And the Green Party’s Infrastructure spokesperson Julie Anne Genter is saying a 30-year-plan is great - as long as it puts the environment front right and centre.

So, chances are, we’ll have all the parties sitting in a room trying to agree and we’ll have National wanting more motorways, Labour wanting more trains and the Greens wanting more cycleways.

This is where I see the Government’s idea coming unstuck. Which shouldn’t be the case because, in other countries, politicians have managed to do what Chris Bishop wants to do.

Across the ditch in New South Wales, they set-up Infrastructure New South Wales 13 years ago.

Back in 2011, the then-state government decided long-term infrastructure projects were too important to be left to the whims of the political cycle, and it seems to have served them well.

Since being set-up, Infrastructure New South Wales has helped deliver projects such as the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, planning of WestConnex and traffic management around Sydney Airport and Port Botany.

It’s also been involved heavily in the new metro system in Sydney which opened the other week - and people seem to be raving about it.

And I suspect the plans by the government here to set-up a National Infrastructure Agency follows Chris Bishop’s recent trip to Australia with the Prime Minister, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Resources Minister Shane Jones.

But I don’t think Chris Bishop is going to get what he wants.

Because —even though it’s been done in other countries— I have zero faith that our politicians can agree on this.

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