Many ‘shovel-ready’ projects still to begin

Fewer than half the Government’s ‘‘shovel-ready’’ infrastructure projects have begun by its first self-imposed deadline, with just 44 per cent of the 150 projects under construction by the end of February.

Last year, the Government announced it would fund 150 shovelready projects, costing $2.6 billion. The projects were meant to kick-start the economy with an infrastructure boom as the country recovered from Covid-19.

The Government said in April that ‘‘shovel ready’’ meant ready to begin within six months, although it pushed this out to 12 months when the projects began to be announced in July 2020.

A written parliamentary question from ACT leader David Seymour to Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson found that only 67 projects had begun ‘‘physical works’’ by the end of February 2021.

Seymour said that the failure represented poor execution, particularly after the Government put $3 billion behind the projects.

‘‘$3b is pretty serous money to take from people,’’ Seymour said.

‘‘That money comes from taxpayers and needs to be paid back by future generations.’’

Robertson said the time frame for the shovel-ready projects changed last year.

‘‘Well in April last year when we first announced the fact we were going to do this, that was the time frame,’’ Robertson said.

‘‘By the time we actually came to fund them and make announcements, we’d moved out to a longer time frame, then we had Covid-19, that slowed down a number of projects from getting going.’’

He said the new commitment was that the projects would begin within 12 months, but the clock would only start ticking on those 12 months when the projects were contracted, not announced.

The shovel-ready projects have been a challenge for the Government. This week it was revealed the projects would create about 11,000 jobs, just over half the 20,000 jobs the Government promised before the election.

The Government’s flagship infrastructure programme, NZ Upgrade, is also under strain, with the Government reviewing the costs of projects it promised to build a little over a year ago.

It now faces a choice of topping up the funding for projects, paring them back, or axing them entirely. Robertson said an announcement on that would be coming shortly.