Foreword

I am pleased to present this first version of the National Infrastructure Plan.

Good infrastructure is vital to a well-running economy. It enables the movement of people, goods and information around our country and around the world. It services housing and households, supports the quality of life within our communities and connects those communities with each other and the rest of the world.

This National Infrastructure Plan contributes to the Government's economic objectives of:

• increasing New Zealand’s productivity growth
• maintaining high levels of employment
• reducing New Zealand’s vulnerability to adverse events, and
• closing the gap with Australia by 2025.

The Government is committed to building better infrastructure to ensure New Zealand can achieve higher levels of economic growth in the years ahead. It was elected with a mandate to fix the infrastructure problems that are holding New Zealand back and to target projects that will help us build a higher-performing economy.

Infrastructure by itself will not get us where we want to be but it should support, not constrain, our journey there. Infrastructure is integral to our growth agenda but in itself it is not the agenda. We are not interested in infrastructure for its own sake but in the economic, social and environmental opportunities that good-quality infrastructure enables.

The Government's approach to infrastructure has three parts:

• a step change in the level of Government investment, with expenditure targeted at key infrastructure priorities
• improving decision-making and management of the Government’s infrastructure assets, and
• improving the regulatory environment to facilitate the private sector’s investment in infrastructure.

We have also established an Infrastructure Unit within the Treasury to provide the Government with advice on infrastructure issues and appointed an independent advisory board to bring a broader perspective to this work.

There are a number of different audiences for the information in this Plan. Some readers will be interested in the Government's direction and strategy. Others may read the Plan for information about the projects in their sector or region. Then there are those who will be interested in information about the history and current state of a sector. The Plan has been structured to help these different audiences quickly find the information they seek.

I would like to thank the groups and individuals who contributed thoughts and comments in the consultation phase of the Plan's development. In particular, I would like to thank members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Board. Though we have been able to use many of the suggestions received, there were also a number of good suggestions that we have not been able to act on in this Plan. We will look to incorporate these suggestions in future versions.

The new Government has been very active and has achieved a great deal already, but we are aware that there is still much to be done to create the infrastructure platform that New Zealand needs to achieve our goals. This National Infrastructure Plan is not intended to be the final word on infrastructure investment in New Zealand, but rather, the beginning of a rich and ongoing conversation. This iteration of the Plan is intended to be the first of many. In particular we expect that future versions will offer an increasingly comprehensive picture of significant infrastructure investments and policies at all levels of government and within the private sector, greater specificity about the infrastructure investment plans of government agencies, and updates on how the Government is progressing towards its infrastructure goals.

Hon Bill English
Minister for Infrastructure