Cross party support for PPPs welcome 

 In November the Government announced a revised public-private partnership (PPP) framework for infrastructure, paving the way for what it hopes will be more firms bidding for infrastructure delivery work. Done right, infrastructure assets can be an attractive private blue-chip investment, delivering low risk, solid returns over a long period.  

 The New Zealand government has no more money to wring out of the tax base – so attracting private investment for capital-intensive infrastructure projects is essential. What was especially pleasing was that the PPP framework attracted cross-party support.  

 Showing that sensible policy is sensible policy no matter which side of the aisle you sit on, spokeswoman for  infrastructure for the Labour Party Barbara Edmonds said “Labour is open to supporting PPPs where they make commercial sense and where they maintain some form of public ownership/control of critical infrastructure and align with Labour values of fairness and co-operation”, noting that “[s]wings in priorities each election cycle don’t help New Zealand’s infrastructure deficit”. 

 NRC commends Ms. Edmonds for leading the way in bi-partisan support for infrastructure. Essential infrastructure such as utilities, communication, roading, rail and supply chain are too important to be reduced to political footballs. Let’s hope this is just the beginning of cross floor consensus for infrastructure.