Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga Bill. It strikes me what a good common-sense bill this is to bring together so many aspects that are so important to New Zealanders' well-being under one area and that's been needed for quite some time in this country. This bill really looks at the ability to look at what good infrastructure is and how that's connected to each other but before I go on any further I would like to acknowledge the Hon Shane Jones and the excellent work that he has done for the regions of New Zealand in not only being able to deliver to areas that have been long neglected in their own economic development but also having the foresight to consider how these areas are interconnected. It is a holistic approach that ensures that we have all of these elements of infrastructure working effectively at the same time. That will really empower those people out in the regions. So I would like to just acknowledge the good work that has gone on in that space. I would also like to acknowledge those on the other side of the House for the fact that they have the foresight and vision to support such an excellent piece of legislation. I think it goes to show that this is indeed a visionary piece of legislation that will do New Zealanders good stead in the many years to come. I think it's important to look at what the problem has been in terms of infrastructure development. To talk about what good infrastructure is we almost need to have a think about what bad infrastructure is. My mind reverts straight away to examples of parts of the Pacific or even in Africa where you have colonisation that builds a road straight from the resource to the port without considering the ongoing development and the communities and the people that reside in between those two points. So what we're wanting to see is an ability for communities to be connected and supported and to be able to flourish and have the best possible well-being that they can to not just do the basics of getting resources from A to B but take into account all the other aspects of health and well-being. Having this ability to connect and have oversight over those things is really what the commission that this bill sets up to establish will be able to do for New Zealand. The commission will ensure that future Governments are supported to deliver quality infrastructure to New Zealanders and that they are held to account for how infrastructure is planned coordinated and delivered. Let me just pause to say how important that coordinated" is because in many areas—and I'm sure there are MPs in the House today who in their own areas have seen one project that has been kicked off without consideration to how it interlinks with another project that may be on a different time frame or that may be under the management of another agency or local government and there's an inability for those voices to be united around the table. So having a commission that can have oversight in these areas provides a very real way to look at how we can deal with those ongoing issues. Some of the key problems that have been experienced in the past have included a lack of integrated investment decisions with and across central government and local government and we have seen that time and time again. There's also been a lack of ability to see the visibility the pipeline and the scale to make sure the timing of such big projects are interlinked well together. Our overriding focus has just been on building new assets rather than on the outcomes we're trying to achieve and our ability to deliver on them. Central government and local government procurement has often been lacking and has not been coordinated enough so this bill enables that by dealing with these issues we put in our capability to ensure the well-being of New Zealanders is not at risk. So I'm incredibly proud to see this work coming together. It's an ability to have a holistic oversight of how development can empower communities and to make sure we're maximizing the benefits of what investment Government is putting into key infrastructure projects. It's important to note too that this commission is not going to be overpowering. It still enables Ministers or departments that invest in and maintain infrastructure will see no change to their existing decision-making powers or accountability. This new commission will be enabled to just be a strong coordinator and facilitator to make sure that there is an oversight of different projects that will be happening simultaneously potentially and even in different areas. So its focus is adding an overarching strategic perspective that does not currently exist and its impact will derive from its ability to gain credibility across all infrastructure owners—whether that be the market—and also to have influence with those decision makers that are so important. In saying that there are so many stakeholders in some of these large-scale infrastructure development projects and it can be incredibly difficult to ensure that the range of stakeholders and their interests and their competing views are all taken into account. These are quite simply some of the reasons why those large-scale projects can go over time or over budget because there is not an oversight in that area. So just to summarise the commission's main functions will be to coordinate to develop and to promote an approach to infrastructure that encourages infrastructure and the services that result. That will in the long term really enable the well-being of New Zealanders to be maximised and that is a good thing. The establishment of the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga is quite quite clearly a concrete step to hold this Government and future Governments to account for how we plan how we coordinate and how we deliver infrastructure. I'm proud to see such foresight such vision and I'm pleased to see strong support from both sides of the House. I commend this bill to the House. Bill read a first time. Bill referred to the Finance and Expenditure Committee."