Minster of Infrastructure Chris Bishop yesterday released the National Infrastructure Plan, which outlines the next 30 years of infrastructure projects.
The lengthy report says the country has spent a lot of money on infrastructure, but has not done it smartly and well. It questions the funding for major land transport projects and suggests funds should be targeting healthcare and electricity in the future.
The report was prepared by the Infrastructure Commission.
It said New Zealand invested about 5.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) annually on infrastructure over the past 20 years, one of the top spending countries in the OECD.
"Yet we rank towards the bottom for efficiency, or ‘bang for buck’. Having a small population spread across challenging terrain doesn’t help, but we also put hurdles in our way," the report said.
"Consenting alone costs infrastructure projects $1.3 billion each year. Too often, projects are announced without going through a proper planning process, and maintenance gets routinely deferred in favour of the ‘new and shiny’."
If New Zealand does not change course, the report warned, new Crown debt was forecast to be 200% of GDP by 2065, or $237,900 per person.
New Zealand ranked fourth to last in the OECD in asset management — looking after existing infrastructure.
As much as 60c in every dollar of future infrastructure spending will need to go towards maintenance and renewals, making this New Zealand’s biggest long-term investment challenge.
Government agencies should be required to develop long-term asset management and investment plans.
"As of September 2025, the pipeline — which assists with project co-ordination and sequencing — contained nearly 12,000 initiatives worth a combined $275b across every sector and region."
Most initiatives were small — 96% of projects have an expected cost of under $50 million, and 98% are under $100m. There were 44 megaprojects with expected costs of more than $1b, making up 52% of the total value. The megaprojects are mostly unfunded.
Of that $275b, just under 40% of it is in Auckland, or $109b.
Otago has 3%, or $8b, worth of projects while Southland has just $3b, or 1.3%.
In Otago, about a third of the costs would be on transport projects, while just below that was social projects.
In Southland nearly half of the spending would be on electricity.
More than two-thirds of the Auckland spending would be on transport.
The commission said more money needed to go into health and electricity projects in the next 30 years.
Health NZ projected about 4900 additional hospital beds might be needed by 2043 to meet demand.
Not as much money would need to be spent on education, water services and transport as the population ages and water service upgrades are completed.
The commission said the land transport funding system was unsustainable, with the most recent three-year plan requiring $12.8b of Crown loans and grants that could have gone to other priority areas, reflecting investment ambitions that significantly exceed user revenues.
Based on current estimates, delivering just the major roads programme in full over the next 20 years would cost $56b. Funding this entirely from petrol tax and road user charges would require a one-off 70% increase, equivalent to a 49c-per-litre increase in petrol tax.
To make land transport funding more affordable it should be funded predominantly by user charges; investment made with greater independence; essential spending on renewal and maintenance prioritised and ongoing subsidies for rail assessed.
At a glance
Top 10 priorities for the next 10 years.—
• Lift hospital investment.
• Catch-up on water renewals and restore affordability.
• Implement time-of-use charging and fleetwide road user charges.
• Prioritise and sequence major land transport projects.
• Manage assets on the down side.
• Prioritise maintenance.
• Identify cost-effective flood resilience infrastructure.
• Commit to a durable resource management framework.
• Upzoning around key transport corridors.
• Taking a predictable approach to electrification.
