Infrastructure – call in the experts

I’ve met Treasury people. They wear suits, have studied economics, but are no good at arithmetic and have no practical understanding of what they are reviewing. No wonder the Auckland underground is so over budget. The Infrastructure Commission no doubt has vision statements, but they don’t have anyone who has built something, let alone paid for it with their own money.

Of the two main teams, at least Robertson has shown real ability to manage the economy, especially compared with his predecessor, Steven Joyce of the $11 billion wrong prediction about Government finances. But infrastructure is not just an economic issue subject to that appalling new invention for visionless decision-avoiders who demand of all things, ‘‘a business case’’. If Governments of the past had allowed Treasury wonks to demand business cases we wouldn’t have our muchvaunted renewable hydroelectric power supply.

Vision is needed and with it the will to invest every year in infrastructure and its maintenance, not just when an election is coming. We need to get past stupid notions from economists who demand that everything runs at a profit, as if roads make one, so that National grew to hate rail because it couldn’t make a profit.

Just as foolishly, Labour seems to be embracing light rail with religious fervour, when a visit to Sydney seriously questions this.

Where are the engineers, the regional developers, the actual investors in this decision-making mix? Sadly they are absent, replaced by bankers and lawyers and teams chosen to meet new flavours of diversity where they may meet the mix of gender and ethnicity, but they are all from the banking and legal fields so in fact there is no diversity.

Track record counts in this field. Who has built big things on time and on budget? Governments need to ask these questions and find these people.

They aren’t normally deeply into party politics but they do exist and will guide us better than just hiring PwC or EY or any of those hanging around ministerial offices.

Now that both parties have remembered infrastructure, let’s ensure we get real value by using real decision-makers, not business-case box-tickers.