6. Question No. 6—InfrastructureSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote) to the Minister for InfrastructureQuestion No. 6—Infrastructure6. SHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote) to the Minister for Infrastructure: What impact will the changes announced for the resource management system have on New Zealand's infrastructure?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister for Infrastructure): The introduction today of the Natural and Built Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill is great news for our infrastructure sector. The new bills will make the resource management process faster cheaper and better and will help boost New Zealand's economic growth. This is especially true for those involved in planning for and building infrastructure. It is a long-held view of those in this sector that the Resource Management Act is not working for them or indeed for anyone else. It has been put in the too hard" basket for too long and we want to make sure that New Zealand can grow sustainably through quality infrastructure and these bills will enable that.Shanan Halbert: Why is it important for the infrastructure sector to make these changes?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The cost and time it takes to get a resource consent for infrastructure projects has grown significantly in recent years with smaller projects being disproportionately affected. Infrastructure developers collectively pay about $1.29 billion a year on consent processes amounting to an average 5.5 percent of total project costs. As the Minister for the Environment has said that puts New Zealand at the extreme end compared with the UK and the EU where consenting costs were between 0.1 percent and 5 percent of total project costs. The Infrastructure Commission /Te Waihanga estimates costs directly related to resource consents increased 70 percent from 2014 to 2019 and the time taken to make consent decisions for infrastructure projects has increased by up to 150 percent over the same period. These bills and this legislation will make sure that those times significantly reduce.Shanan Halbert: What specific savings will there be to the infrastructure sector from this piece of legislation?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Well less money will be spent on consents and spatial planning will help communities developers councils and central government agencies build much-needed infrastructure projects. Developers infrastructure providers and businesses will see the largest cost savings as consent volumes and cost reduce delivering savings of hundreds of millions of dollars are year.Hon Gerry Brownlee: How soon?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The new system will create standards associated with housing and infrastructure—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Years away.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: —contained in the national planning framework. Mr Brownlee you didn't even get legislation in in the nine years you were in office so I don't think you get to ask us questions on that. A process similar to the fast-track process put in place in response to the economic impact of COVID-19 which reduced consenting time by an average of 15 months per project will be retained.Shanan Halbert: How can the infrastructure sector support the implementation of the new system?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: If we want the most of the benefits the new resource management system can offer then we do need to make sure it is properly invested in when it comes to its implementation. Budget 2022 saw the Government provide $179 million on top of the funding provided in previous Budgets to ensure funds are available for developing key areas of reform. We have taken the time to get this right. I am immensely proud the legislation is here it will be passed before the next election and we will reform the resource management system which National utterly failed to do."