Kerre Woodham: The Investment Summit is filling me with real hope and optimism

Speaking of the Investment Summit that's been convened by the government – or really the Prime Minister, because this Infrastructure Investment Summit is the PM's baby. What I really love is the positivity around it. It must be killing some media organisations, having to reluctantly spit out some good news. But there's optimism and there's hard bitten trillion-dollar asset fund managers saying yes, this all looks really promising. It's not just hearing about the very real possibility of getting essential works done, but it's the encouraging words from those fund managers with their trillions of dollars worth of assets.  

And even more so, I love the talk of bipartisanship. That really warms the cockles of my hard, old heart. Investors are not going to commit their clients' funds if works are going to come to a grinding halt in 18 months or so and then three years later, we attempt to lurch them back into life. As Chris Bishop explained to Ryan Bridge last night, the investors needed to be reassured that there was bipartisan agreement when it comes to committing to big ticket projects.  

“That's been a constant theme of today, hearing from the delegates, they like the fact that you've got National and Labour in the room being mature, grown-up adults, agreeing on, working on a pipeline, and also the funding model. Barbara Edmonds wrote a forward to the PPP document that we released as a government. That is really important and I'm working with her on the 30-year plan for infrastructure in New Zealand and I actively want to involve the opposition in that.  

“And I think, the reality is, we need as a country to do that, right? Because these guys want long term certainty, they want to invest in New Zealand, they need to understand that their investments are safe and secure, and that there's also a pipeline so they can invest in human capital, and they can invest in the kit and the machinery. That is really important. Frankly, if we're honest about it, we haven't been very good at that as a country. Governments come and go, and the project’s come and go. Let's get mature about, let's be adults in the room and build for New Zealand.” 

Amen to that. I don't know if you heard Chris Bishop with Ryan last night, but it was really positive, forward-looking – there was no negativity, no sniping. It was fantastic. It was wonderful to hear. Before the election, Christopher Luxon was talking about drawing up a bipartisan agreement with Labour on what infrastructure works were essential, works that whatever government came to power would support. And there'd be a bit of wriggle room for pet projects to appease ideologues within the various parties, who might not understand the importance of pragmatism. So Labour could come in and yes, they would still have to keep going with the expressway or the planned motorway or motorway extension, and the ideologues within their party would be unhappy about that, but there was a little bit of money in the kitty for a few cycleways that would appease them, or funded public transport fees, that sort of thing.  

At the time I thought it was a bit pie in the sky, but seeing Labour's finance spokesperson there, having Barbara Edmonds actually being part of the process —a competent, capable woman who's untarnished by being part of the previous administration— fills me with real hope and optimism. And it's been a while since I've felt that. 

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