National will explore innovative tools and funding mechanisms to deliver the high-quality infrastructure New Zealanders want faster and cheaper, Infrastructure spokesman Paul Goldsmith says.
"When it comes to infrastructure, a government's actions speak louder than its words; and Labour has been so incompetent that it won't get any major infrastructure started this term.
"National won't make the same mistakes. We won't spend more than two years going virtually nowhere on big projects like the Government has on light rail for Auckland.
"To speed things up we are considering new approaches to infrastructure financing and procurement, including commercial revenue schemes, partnerships with the private sector, and capital injections from general government spending.
"Fast-tracking consents for projects of national importance has produced great results for this country. We're keen to explore further fast-track arrangements for other major infrastructure projects.
"National is also considering increasing the number of agencies we have to manage infrastructure delivery. One example could be establishing a specialist crown entity inside the Ministry of Education to procure new school builds.
"Infrastructure investment is critical to improving our water quality and resilience to climate change. The current Government has ended support for water storage infrastructure whereas National will look at expanding support with a new Water Infrastructure Fund.
As part of our commitment to deliver infrastructure faster, National is also considering:
- Requiring the Infrastructure Commission to review completed procurement projects so knowledge can be shared across the government sector.
- Ensuring taxes on road users are spent for the benefit of road users.
- Reforming local government so councils can make greater use of private capital
"It's important this country has a pipeline of major projects in place, like the Roads of National Significance, and that governments refrain from cancelling or delaying them. That's why we support drawing up a national pipeline of major projects."
