Infrastructure – We Spend Like Scandinavians, Build Like Amateurs & Argue Like Schoolkids

The Thing About The Kiwi Approach To Infrastructure

Every so often, New Zealand discovers it’s “world-class” at something unflattering. Last week, Infrastructure NZ’s Building Nations conference served up the latest accolade - we’re in the OECD top ten for the proportion of GDP we pour into infrastructure, but bottom ten for value returned. In fact, a 2024 survey ranked us dead last at delivering national infrastructure. World beaters! Unfortunately, we’re running the wrong race.

The Infrastructure Minister, Chris Bishop, cheerfully admitted we’re tangled in a Gordian knot of rules, regulation and bureaucracy. His chosen comparison - in 1965 we strung a 610km Cook Strait power cable across some of the roughest seas on earth. Today we struggle to get a solar farm consented.

That says it all, doesn’t it?

The Business Owner’s Angle

So why should an SME owner, who just wants their trucks on decent roads or their staff not sitting in traffic, care about this high-level political wrangling? Because infrastructure isn’t an abstract government hobby. It’s the skeleton that supports your daily operations.

Every late delivery, every frustrated employee caught in congestion, every water main that bursts and floods your premises - that’s infrastructure failure writ small. Businesses pay twice - once through taxes and rates and again through inefficiency, lost productivity and frayed tempers.

Predictability Is the Real Currency

Ireland’s former Prime Minister Leo Varadkar spelled it out. What saved Ireland after its post-2008 collapse wasn’t magic leprechaun dust but predictability. Once the IMF and European Central Bank imposed long-term infrastructure plans, opposition parties stopped playing musical chairs with projects. Even if they didn’t love every motorway or hospital, they kept the pipeline going. Investors and businesses could finally plan with confidence.

Contrast that with New Zealand, where a project might take ten years to design, consent and argue over - then get scrapped when the government changes. For business owners, that’s like building a factory on shifting sand. No wonder foreign investors politely edge toward the door.

Bipartisanship - The Political F-Word

Here’s where the comedy kicks in. Everyone agrees we need bipartisan frameworks - except the politicians. Labour is wary of too much cooperation, muttering that “bipartisanship” just means agreeing with whatever the government says. National, naturally, is very keen on sharing the blame. It’s like watching two kids argue over who gets to hold the steering wheel while the car rolls into a ditch.

Meanwhile, businesses are left bumping along on potholes and waiting for the pipes to burst.

What This Means for You

1. Budget for Delays, Always.
   No matter what the government announces, assume it will take twice as long and cost twice as much. Factor delays into your supply chain, staffing and expansion plans.

2. Push Councils and Industry Groups.
   Local chambers, BusinessNZ, industry associations - they all feed into these national debates. If you want your sector’s needs on the table (say, freight corridors, broadband, water), speak up. Silence guarantees you’ll be ignored.

3. Think Regional Clusters.
   Overseas speakers at the conference noted that clustering infrastructure around key sectors delivers better returns. For SMEs, that means opportunities will sprout near designated growth hubs. If you’re considering expansion, watch where the government actually commits shovels to dirt.

4. Resilience Over Reliance.
   Given our habit of under-delivering, don’t rely solely on government infrastructure promises. Invest in backup systems - from water storage to digital redundancy. When the pipes burst, the SMEs with their own tanks and fibre alternatives keep trading.

5. Brand Advantage in the Chaos.
   While everyone else moans about the endless roadworks, frame your business as the one that still delivers on time, no matter what. Customers will remember reliability more than any ad campaign.

The Systemic Snags

Dunne is right that many barriers are systemic, not political. Our consenting process is a labyrinth, our planning horizons are laughably short and our councils are perpetually cash-strapped. These aren’t ideological problems, they’re plumbing issues. And like any dodgy plumbing, they’re solvable - if we stop arguing over who gets the spanner.

The uncomfortable truth is that businesses already operate with more discipline than the state. An SME owner wouldn’t survive five minutes if they planned a factory upgrade with no certainty of completion date, doubled the budget halfway through and then scrapped it altogether after the annual shareholder meeting. Yet that’s how New Zealand treats billion-dollar projects.

What To Watch Over the Next Year

• Whether Bishop and Labour’s Kieran McAnulty can craft even a sketch of a bipartisan framework. If they do, businesses should breathe a little easier.

• Where the $6 billion infrastructure package actually lands. Don’t listen to the speeches - follow the tenders. That’s where the business opportunities (and sub-contracts) will appear.

• Whether councils slash water infrastructure spending. If they do, expect more “boil water” notices and more chances for SMEs to step into service gaps.

The Takeaway

We spend like Scandinavians, build like amateurs and argue like schoolkids. That’s New Zealand infrastructure in a nutshell.

For SME owners, the trick is not to wait for government heroics but to plan as if the cavalry won’t arrive. Build resilience into your operations, sniff out the opportunities hidden in the chaos and keep your advocacy loud enough that Wellington can’t pretend you don’t exist.

Because while politicians fret about whether bipartisanship is a sell-out, you’ve got customers waiting, trucks needing roads and staff who’d quite like to flush a toilet without wondering if today’s the day the pipes finally give up.

If you’d like a confidential, free of charge, free of obligation conversation about your business, here’s how to get me.

📞 Phone +64 275 665 682
✉️ Email john.luxton@regenerationhq.co.nz
🌐 Contact Form www.regenerationhq.co.nz/contact

If you’d like to read more RegenerationHQ thinking on SME business and other things, go here – www.regenerationhq.co.nz/articles-overview

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