The industry under blue

Now National’s in power what can the quarry and mining industry expect in terms of changes?

Based on pre-election promises, the industry can expect an immediate reform of the Resource Management Act, a push on infrastructure investment, significant changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme, and a review of Accident Compensation Commission and the workplace.

In a speech to the NZ Council for Infrastructure Development conference this year, John Key agreed with the council that “quality infrastructure is vital to lifting national productivity, improving public services, and generating long-term economic growth.”

National also supported the council’s goal of drawing the public and private sector together in pursuit of better infrastructure, he added.

National’s National Infrastructure Plan includes appointing a Minister of Infrastructure to reshape, co-ordinate, and then oversee the Government’s new infrastructure objectives.

This 20-year plan will be developed in conjunction with local government and set a clear direction for vital national infrastructure investment, says Key, including top priority projects that include investing up to $1.5 billion in Crown capital in an ultra-fast, fibre-to-the-home broadband network connecting 75 percent of the population.

The infrastructure plan also includes a new category of state highway, Key calls “Roads of National Significance” to be singled out for priority treatment (including State Highway 1) and “priority consenting” for infrastructure projects that also deserve it.

“Our new priority consenting process will streamline consents for major national infrastructure, that will be ‘called in’ rather than go through local councils. The law will require a decision on these priority consents within nine months,” he says.

To pay for it, National says it is prepared to increase the Crown’s current infrastructure investment by up to an extra $500 million a year above levels projected by Labour (on top of the broadband costs). “This will result in National investing close to $5 billion of additional capital investment over the next six years to fund infrastructure over and above that foreshadowed by Labour.” Which means National will run a gross debt-to-GDP ratio around two percentage points higher than Labour did.

Key also promises to pass laws to introduce a new range of private financing techniques for national infrastructure projects that includes what he calls “real infrastructure bonds”, with funding tagged to particular infrastructure.

National says PPP’s is a “vital tool” that will allow the government to spread payments for major projects over their useful life. “Payment is made only when services are delivered. Risks are shared between the private sector and government.”

New financing and asset management techniques will open up infrastructure to a wide range of financial investors, including Kiwisaver accounts, the NZ Super Fund and ACC.

Changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) and priority cxonsenting will improve the consenting processes for these infrastructure projects, says Key. Within the first 100 days of its first term, National says it will introduce to Parliament a bill to reform the RMA that will include removing the ministerial veto over consents, reducing the number of consent categories, and putting an end to “frivolous and vexatious objections”.

The last National Government opened ACC workplace policies to competition, but it was re-nationalised after Labour won the election in the same year – 1999.

The new National Government says it will, “conduct a full stock-take of the various components of the ACC scheme, evaluate progress to full funding, and identify areas of cross-subsidy or cost-shifting and under-funding of newly-legislated entitlements; and investigate the introduction of an independent disputes tribunal to end ACC’s dual role of judge and jury on disputed claims.”

Any changes to introduce competition and choice will be made after full evaluation of the benefits to consumers, says Key.