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Speaker 1: So we've got this thirty INFRACOM report, the Infrastructure Commission report.

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Speaker 1: They can spend fifty five to seventy billion less on roads.

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Speaker 1: Your rons might be under threat. Double spending on hospitals

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Speaker 1: because we're getting older, one hundred billion more on energy

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Speaker 1: and how do you pay for it? Well, more user pays,

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Speaker 1: including potentially a toll on the Auckland Harbor Bridge. Allan

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Speaker 1: Pollard Civil Contractors, New Zealand chief is with us this morning.

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Speaker 1: Hey Ellen, Hi, right, how are you good? Thank you?

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Speaker 1: Do you use it well? First of all, good, good

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Speaker 1: idea good plan? You like it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think it's a real honest assessment of

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Speaker 2: the real challenges we faced with all infrastructure program in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand. It reflects a lot of the things we've

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Speaker 2: been advocating for for some time. That the need for

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Speaker 2: a very clear, consistent, funded pipeline of work, the fact

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Speaker 2: that we need to rebuild our capacity and capability were

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Speaker 2: deliver it. So it has to have a long term vision,

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Speaker 2: and the need to remove a lot of these regulatory

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Speaker 2: barriers that we've faced historically. So I think it's a

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Speaker 2: very good, open, honest assessment.

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Speaker 1: Good but a lot of the problem with the project

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Speaker 1: that we've had in the past is they stay on

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Speaker 1: paper too long and don't actually happen. So to make

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Speaker 1: this work, we need to get all the polleys on board.

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Speaker 2: Right absolutely, and they look to be fair. I often

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Speaker 2: have people tell me that it's never going to happen,

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Speaker 2: but you know, the reality is we don't have the choice.

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Speaker 2: You know, for the sake of our communities, whether it's

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Speaker 2: water or transport or resilience, we have to take a

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Speaker 2: long term view and for our industry we've got to

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Speaker 2: have certainty. That's the only way that we can have

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Speaker 2: confidence to invest in our people, our plant, our technology

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Speaker 2: and so on. So there's canceled culture that's sort of

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Speaker 2: been a part of change of government, so that many

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Speaker 2: decades just has to stop. You know.

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Speaker 1: We talk about the Auckland Harbor Bridge. I was reading

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Speaker 1: the other day about a bridge and Wanganui. They't need

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Speaker 1: to build to get across the Wanganui River. It's going

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Speaker 1: to cost about seventy million dollars. Do we need to

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Speaker 1: toll everything to make it?

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Speaker 2: To make it? Yeah, I think what the plan's clearly

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Speaker 2: shows is that we've got this massive need for infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: Two hundred and seventy five billion sitting at the pipeline.

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Speaker 2: Lots of protests enough money. So you know, we have

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Speaker 2: a very small tax payer base to fund our national infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: We've got a very small rate payer base to fund

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Speaker 2: our regional infrastructure. So we have to do things differently,

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Speaker 2: and that means not just the idea of user pays,

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Speaker 2: tolls and so on, but a more private investment. There's

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Speaker 2: a lot of international pension funds that are interested in investment

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Speaker 2: and public private partnerships as well. We can't continue to

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Speaker 2: rely on taxpayers and ratepayers to fund it.

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Speaker 1: How do we stop the cost blowout?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think there's a number of things. Having a

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Speaker 2: clear pipeline allows us to look at more efficiencies in

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Speaker 2: the delivery sector, making sure that we have a good

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Speaker 2: sustainable workforce. One of the reasons that costs do increase

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Speaker 2: is because, as we face right now, we have a

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Speaker 2: labor shortage and so inevitably the price of labor goes up.

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Speaker 2: But having really efficient consenting our systems is really important too.

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Speaker 2: And as a report notes, you know, consenting costs a

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Speaker 2: cost of skyrocket that they're over five or six percent

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Speaker 2: of a project costs. That's about one point three billion

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Speaker 2: a year and that alone, So all of these things

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Speaker 2: together can bring more efficiency to project delivery.

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Speaker 1: Alan like your stuff, Alan Pollard several contractors in New

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Speaker 1: Zealand tea for them.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live

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