March 10, 2025 • 17 mins
The Government’s focus on economic growth and foreign investment is back in the spotlight this week.
Later this week, the much-anticipated Investment Summit will take place in Auckland.
Businesses from over 14 countries, with six trillion dollars of capital, will be in attendance across Thursday and Friday, with Government Ministers and Labour representatives in attendance.
It comes at a critical time for the Government, with mixed poll results suggesting a difficult path to re-election next year.
Today on The Front Page, to talk us through who’ll be in attendance and what it all means for the Government, we’re joined by NZ Herald deputy political editor and host of the On the Tiles podcast, Thomas Coughlan.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Richard Martin
Producer: Ethan Sills
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Kyoda. I'm Richard Martin in for Chelsea Daniels and this
is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the
New Zealand Herald. The government's focus on economic growth and
foreign investment is back in the spotlight. Later this week,
the much anticipated Investment Summit will take place in Auckland.
(00:26):
Businesses from over fourteen countries with six trillion dollars of
capital will be in attendance across Thursday and Friday, with
government ministers and labor representatives in attendance. It comes at
a critical time for the government, with mixed pole results
suggesting a difficult path to re election next year. Today
on the Front Page to talk us through who will
(00:46):
be in attendance and what it all means for the government,
we're joined by Enzed Herald Deputy Political editor and host
of On the Tiles podcast, Thomas Coglin. Thomas, what is
the purpose of the summit? What is the government actually
hoping to get out of it?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, the government wants to encourage more investment in New
Zealand economy in general. It's keen to get more foreign
investment into all parts of the New Zealand economy. So
that means you know, you start a business somewhere, perhaps
there is a foreign investor out there who wants to
buy into your business and help you grow it overseas.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
That's the sort of broader government goal.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
More specifically, this conference is about private investment and government projects,
so the public private partnerships. For example, the government is
more than a handful of sort of infrastructure projects. The
mainly in the infrastructure area that it is keen to build,
and it is less inclined to borrow the money and
do the building themselves as New Zealanders tended to do
in the past. You know, you borrow a whole lot
(01:47):
of money and.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You build a tunnel or whatever.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
The government is keen to partner up with private investors
overseas who will raise the capital themselves, partner with builders
to deliver the project. They'll run it for a certain
amount of time. I mean, this is all sort of hypothetical.
These contracts look different depending on the project, but that's
just sort of your boilerplate example of how it works.
So the government's basically got a lot of infrastructure projects.
(02:11):
That's key to tickets in private finance. For these investors
from overseas are coming to have a look at them
and see if they if they stack out.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
In layman terms, it's basically a big sales pitch to
the world, right.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, it's a it's a public private partnership sales convention.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Really.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
They come in and if they like what they see,
they'll they'll ope ab out their walllets and potentially invested that.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay, So what are some of the key businesses that
are going to be in attendance because we're looking at
around one hundred or so, right.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, about one hundred businesses or organizations. Some of them
are small local construction firms and then you've got like
large ewe organizations. My Tagic Holdings from the South Island
is coming up. So these are these are like construction
and professional services firms, law firms from New Zealand. So
these are New Zealand firms that would be partnering with
(02:59):
these seas firms to try and deliver projects. If their
construction company or help with the legal you know that
the legal infrastructure of New Zealand. If their law firm.
You know, if you're you're a big international investment, you
want to you want to pick up the front of
a New Zealand lawyer to say, you know, how does
the r M A, how does the RMA work. That's
a that's a long conversation. And then you've got larger
organizations that are keen to get involved like that. They've
(03:21):
got some some pretty big portfolios at the moment and
they might be looking to say, you know that they've
got some local expertise. I mean to use the Nahoo
example again, they know the South Island back to front.
They've got a lot of capital themselves, but they might
want to partner up with a with an even larger
investment front from overseas to to do something to match
the capital and skills that I've got with with even
(03:41):
more capital from offshore. So that's the that's the local
side of things like Morrison's as there as well that
there are large New Zealand firm that that that manages funds.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
You know, it's not it's not all international.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Then you've got some some large sort of blue chip
firms from overseas. So CVPQ, which is a big Canadian
and investment investment fund. They were the ones who were
looking at doing the Auckland light Rail public private partnership
from a few years ago before they've done before that
fell apart.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
That's one of them.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
You've got City Bank, one of the big American banks,
but some of the large Chinese Chinese banks which which
have a claim to being some of the some of
the largest banks in the world, head Construction, so they're
involved in the transmission gully provate public private partnership. China
Construction Bank, another very large Chinese bank, Hyundai, well a
member of the Hyundai group, so that that they were
(04:31):
obviously involved in the in the Theory project that that
that hasn't been going so well, but but that clearly
still interested enough to come over. So your big big films.
So there are also some Kiwi savers providers like Milford
Milford Asset Management who obviously do managed funds, but they
also run quite a popular kiwisaver so that they're here
on the on the New Zealand side of things, mid
Tubishi's here. So some really some really big names and
(04:53):
familiar names. But I think you have our colleagues across
the corridor at Businesses have done some some good reporting
on this that there are some big since thes as well,
like you know, the government's were making a big push
to Abu Dhabi and sorry, the United Barer Emirates and
some of the large and some of the large immorti
funds are not are not here. So so look it's yeah,
you can you can find some big names, but there
(05:15):
are also some some some places, some some firms that
you'd expect to see that that that that are not there.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yees, So looking at that choice of firms and I
guess also the firms that that are not going to
be attending. What does that really say about what this
government is targeting?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
The government is quite kean philosophically.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
The government thinks that New Zealand would be better off if
it were more connected to international capital markets. If if
if New Zealand was seen as an attractive place to invest,
that would mean there would be more investment. And when
there is more investment, arguably the cost of capital decreases
because people there's so much demand to invest in New
Zealand that that people are willing to people are people
are willing to cut their pricess in theory, so so
(05:54):
so the government's of philosophical ideas more investment equals more
and more foreign investment in New Zealand means of all
the better economy and certainly when you look at the
relationship between foreign investment and things like productivity, and there's
some good evidence that foreign investment is good for that.
In terms of who's invited, I mean, the government doesn't
want any kind of low profile, kind of not all
(06:16):
that flash foreign funds coming and and certainly, you know,
it doesn't look like there's anyone on that list who's
just making up the numbers for it that way. So
so credit to the government, I guess that managed to find,
you know, a fairly solid slate. But the list is
mainly full of firms that have money to invest and
then then firms that have the construction, legal professional services
(06:38):
ability to deliver on on that on that investment, anyone
with money was probably probably welcome, and then I guess
you wouldn't want any kind of sort of dark money obviously,
but it doesn't appear that that's is the case.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
With the schools, a private partner comes along and build
the school and then rather than just building something and
handing over to the ministry or school to maintain, which
you know, I think anyone listening will know from our
school property experience, the government has done really badly. It's
while we have rocking school buildings all over the country.
In a PPP a deliverer of the project in maintainment
(07:15):
for twenty five thirty years now. We've paid that so
it's not going maintenance, but that's built into the contract
and as an availability of payment and a maintenance payment
and all of those things. But they have to maintain
it to specified performance standards. And anyone who visits the
PPP schools that we have out there now will know
that are really well maintained. They're very high quality schools
and so you get what you're paid for.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Private public partnerships are something that this government is keen on,
but Business Desk reported last week that there aren't actually
that many ready to go in the near term.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Is that correct, Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
There's the government publishes these investment statements every cord. I
believe they were started by labor, but the current government
has begun publishing them more regular so that people labor.
Labor wasn't so so flash on publishing them in a
timely manner, so that the government, the government's publishing them
very regularly, so you get a look up of the
hood at what's happening investment wise, and at the moment, Yeah,
(08:13):
there there aren't very many PPPs ready to go to market,
just for I think are the first stage of the
Northland Expressway, which to be fair is a very large
PPP if that happens, and then a couple of smaller projects.
Chris Bishop, I think, in that story said that actually
that's quite a lot to go to market with it once,
and I guess you know, he's probably right, mainly because
that Northland Expressway projects so big. But certainly, you know,
(08:34):
if you if you're having all these people too Ortland
for the summit, you'll want to have a deeper, a
bigger stand to offer. The government is saying, well, look,
this is just the start, and this part of this
is about forging relationships with these businesses so that in
the long term, is we have more of these PPPs
go to market, that New Zealand is sort of a
trusted and reliable partner for them, and so perhaps the
relationships that are built at this at this summit leads
(08:57):
to PPP investments down the track. But you know, obviously
that time will tell whether they're right from thinking that,
But certainly if it goes well, you know, maybe who
knows five years time, some of these other PPPs go
to market. Some of the some of the relationships that
will forged this week be a fruit from terms of investment.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Labour's Farbara Edmonds is going to be there. Does this
suggest that we might finally see some cross party consensus
on infrastructure. Surely Labor has some different priorities on what
infrastructure it wants to see built.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I think one of the main things for Labor, one
of the main things for PPPs in general, is market certainty.
When things go really bad, a new government comes and
rips up contracts and changes the investment environment, and that
means that as a country, investors are less likely to
come here and sit up shop because they don't know
what the next government's going to do.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
When Labor got into office last time around, it was
not philosophically very keen on PPPs, but.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
It didn't rip up any contracts.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
You know that the Transmission Gully PPP was finished and
had a funding top up and then opened by Labor.
Quite the fact that Labor wasn't very keen on the
idea of PPPs, it's still it's still allowed the project
to go ahead. And and so I think the fact
that Barbaria Edmonds is there sort of says like, hey, look,
you know, we're obviously with a labor party. We absolutely
different values and views on doing infrastructure, but don't be
(10:21):
afraid of the sovereign risk aspect to investing in New
Zealand because we're pro investment too. So I think there's
actually quite a big thing that she is there, quite
a big signal to those investors to come here, and particularly,
you know when you see all the crazy stuff that's
happening in the United States and actually some crazy stuff
that's happening in Europe and South am Euerica too, these
these big funds might look at you know, boring old
New Zealand and think, well, great, invest a few hundred
(10:43):
million dollars in building a road, and we've got this
asset which makes money for us over over a few decades,
and the future government isn't going to come along and
rip it up and cost us, you know, one hundreds
of millions of dollars. That the fact that that Barbaria
Edmonds is there gives them a lot of a lot
of certainty. I think that whatever happens their investments, I say,
under a future government, because obviously these projects will last
for decades, and you know in New Zealand, like the
(11:05):
longest the longest government we've had do we tend to
have these days as a nine year government. So you know,
whatever whatever happens with these investments, these investors know that
and then not to just in future there will be
another government and they want to make sure that their
investments safe under their government too.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Economic growth is a key priority for the government this year.
Do you think that that's resonating with voters.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
It's a good question. I think.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I think voters would like to see economic growth because
economic growth is usually a good thing. So I think
because we haven't had very good economic growth for the
last few years, I imagine voters are thinking, yes, police,
we would like some of that.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Please.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You know, it means generally means higher incomes and a
good of life for New Zealanders. So I think voters
would like to see economic growth, whether or not heavy
with the tactics and the methods of the government is
using to get their economic growth, more foreign investment in particular.
That's that's that remains to be seen. There's a ten
Expayers Union poll out recently which actually showed that voters
(12:02):
were pretty supportive of more tourism, international students and the like.
So most of the government's policy leaders that it's looking
at using are supported by by a decent number of voters.
So so yeah, I suppose based on that poll voters
like what they're seeing. Obviously most current polling, here's the
government behind the opposition. So I suppose you know what,
(12:24):
what does that say? Well, that says the voters is
not very happy with the current government. Although whether whether
that those poles will reversed out once we get economic growth.
You know, typically based on what we've seen in the past,
when the economy is doing well, the government the government's
position and the polls improves. So maybe that's what that's
what the government's hoping for, is that is that once
(12:44):
they get the economic growth, if they get economic growth,
some of that pollingly that the opposition currently enjoys will
will reverse.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Out way for polling.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
So Forny, look, I mean, we've got you know, it's
a tough time for Kiwi's poles are bouncing around a lot.
Our job is to focus on what New Zealanders want
and that is all about us fixing the economy and
making sure we get money into Kiwi's back pockets, and
I can tell you don't give a lot of thought.
I'm here each and every day making sure that we're
actually growing the economy. That's why we're doing the infrastructure summit,
That's why we're going to India. Those are the things
(13:16):
that are actually going to power up the economy and
get Kiyi's more cash in the pop us so that
there's a trend of labor overtaking you. Well, I just
say to you, look, I never have obsessed too much
on poles, as you know when we've talked about them
in the past, and it's the same position.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Well, on the subject of polls, there was a Horizon
Research poll and stuff this week that found that thirty
nine percent of respondents were concerned about the coalition's performance.
Thirty eight percent were disappointed, compared to only ten percent
who felt pleased. So does this put some pressure on
the summit succeeding to really turn things around, or is
this just one small part of a bigger issue for
(13:52):
the coalition?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Well, polls, that's like, it's a quite interestingly worded question.
I suppose it's in the polling question. I mean, not
your question that those poles sort it's quite it sounds
quite similar to a right track wrong track question, which
is do you feel like the countries on the right
track and do you feel or on the wrong track?
And so voters feel like the countries are on the
wrong track, that tends to vote very bad as a
(14:14):
leading indicator for the party vote performance. So if the
voters are feeling negatively about the government, about the country
and the direction it's on, that tends to show up
in a few weeks or months and the party vote
performance of the government. Yeah, I think what their horizon
poll shows is what a number of right and wrong
track tolls and economic sentiment polls are shown, which is
that people are not feeling very good. People are not
(14:34):
feeling very good about the state of the economy and
the country, and therefore the government that runs the country
is not performing well. Like that does for pressure, I mean,
not so much on the summit, Like I don't think
the government is going to succeed or failed depending on
the summit, but it does put pressure on the government
to sort of actually deliver something tangible to voters before
the next election, just so it does have something to say,
(14:55):
you know, to vote as well that we're making the
country better because because of the exposed and I suppose
whether summit might be successful and achieving their aim as
if the summit's able to court investment from someone and
because of that investment and infrastructure project is accelerated. The
ex party has this idea of accelerating infrastructure investment by
simply allowing more or less say well, look, if you
(15:18):
want to if there's any infrastructure project out there that
you think you can build and with no assistance from
the government, then you know, we would like to hear
from you. And if you can do it without us
putting up any money, then there's a chance you'll be.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Able to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And then they look at that as a way of
accelerating investment, you know, or even when you look at
the roads that we want to build over the next
of thirty thirty years, we have a long pipeline of roads.
If a private investor comes and says, look, you know
that road that you want to build in fifteen years time,
I could do that as a PvP if you let
me start tomorrow, And that sort of works that way
where private investors look at the slate and if they
like something or else they can bring it forward, maybe
(15:52):
very downstream of this summit. You see stuff like that,
and the government would would then be able to go
to verses and say, look, as a result of our
investment changes, result of us courting this capital, we've actually
started to close the infrastructure deficite thanks to private capital.
You know, I'm not sure you'll see a massive changes
before the election though, because these things, particularly in the
infrastructure world, things move pretty slow, So I wouldn't be
getting ahead of myself.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, Like, are you expecting it to go well or yeah?
Is it just too short term thinking to think in
terms of success or failure about this?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I think if we see some projects Anington in the
short term, then I think it will be a success.
But I yeah, I don't. I wouldn't be expecting something
too tangible from it.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Thanks for joining us, Thomas no Wiries. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
That's it for this episode of The Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at zidherld dot co dot nzen. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sills. I'm Richard Martin. Subscribe to the
Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts,
and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
Kyoda. I'm Richard Martin in for Chelsea Daniels and this
is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the
New Zealand Herald. The government's focus on economic growth and
foreign investment is back in the spotlight. Later this week,
the much anticipated Investment Summit will take place in Auckland.
(00:26):
Businesses from over fourteen countries with six trillion dollars of
capital will be in attendance across Thursday and Friday, with
government ministers and labor representatives in attendance. It comes at
a critical time for the government, with mixed pole results
suggesting a difficult path to re election next year. Today
on the Front Page to talk us through who will
(00:46):
be in attendance and what it all means for the government,
we're joined by Enzed Herald Deputy Political editor and host
of On the Tiles podcast, Thomas Coglin. Thomas, what is
the purpose of the summit? What is the government actually
hoping to get out of it?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, the government wants to encourage more investment in New
Zealand economy in general. It's keen to get more foreign
investment into all parts of the New Zealand economy. So
that means you know, you start a business somewhere, perhaps
there is a foreign investor out there who wants to
buy into your business and help you grow it overseas.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
That's the sort of broader government goal.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
More specifically, this conference is about private investment and government projects,
so the public private partnerships. For example, the government is
more than a handful of sort of infrastructure projects. The
mainly in the infrastructure area that it is keen to build,
and it is less inclined to borrow the money and
do the building themselves as New Zealanders tended to do
in the past. You know, you borrow a whole lot
(01:47):
of money and.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You build a tunnel or whatever.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
The government is keen to partner up with private investors
overseas who will raise the capital themselves, partner with builders
to deliver the project. They'll run it for a certain
amount of time. I mean, this is all sort of hypothetical.
These contracts look different depending on the project, but that's
just sort of your boilerplate example of how it works.
So the government's basically got a lot of infrastructure projects.
(02:11):
That's key to tickets in private finance. For these investors
from overseas are coming to have a look at them
and see if they if they stack out.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
In layman terms, it's basically a big sales pitch to
the world, right.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, it's a it's a public private partnership sales convention.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Really.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
They come in and if they like what they see,
they'll they'll ope ab out their walllets and potentially invested that.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay, So what are some of the key businesses that
are going to be in attendance because we're looking at
around one hundred or so, right.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, about one hundred businesses or organizations. Some of them
are small local construction firms and then you've got like
large ewe organizations. My Tagic Holdings from the South Island
is coming up. So these are these are like construction
and professional services firms, law firms from New Zealand. So
these are New Zealand firms that would be partnering with
(02:59):
these seas firms to try and deliver projects. If their
construction company or help with the legal you know that
the legal infrastructure of New Zealand. If their law firm.
You know, if you're you're a big international investment, you
want to you want to pick up the front of
a New Zealand lawyer to say, you know, how does
the r M A, how does the RMA work. That's
a that's a long conversation. And then you've got larger
organizations that are keen to get involved like that. They've
(03:21):
got some some pretty big portfolios at the moment and
they might be looking to say, you know that they've
got some local expertise. I mean to use the Nahoo
example again, they know the South Island back to front.
They've got a lot of capital themselves, but they might
want to partner up with a with an even larger
investment front from overseas to to do something to match
the capital and skills that I've got with with even
(03:41):
more capital from offshore. So that's the that's the local
side of things like Morrison's as there as well that
there are large New Zealand firm that that that manages funds.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
You know, it's not it's not all international.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Then you've got some some large sort of blue chip
firms from overseas. So CVPQ, which is a big Canadian
and investment investment fund. They were the ones who were
looking at doing the Auckland light Rail public private partnership
from a few years ago before they've done before that
fell apart.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
That's one of them.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
You've got City Bank, one of the big American banks,
but some of the large Chinese Chinese banks which which
have a claim to being some of the some of
the largest banks in the world, head Construction, so they're
involved in the transmission gully provate public private partnership. China
Construction Bank, another very large Chinese bank, Hyundai, well a
member of the Hyundai group, so that that they were
(04:31):
obviously involved in the in the Theory project that that
that hasn't been going so well, but but that clearly
still interested enough to come over. So your big big films.
So there are also some Kiwi savers providers like Milford
Milford Asset Management who obviously do managed funds, but they
also run quite a popular kiwisaver so that they're here
on the on the New Zealand side of things, mid
Tubishi's here. So some really some really big names and
(04:53):
familiar names. But I think you have our colleagues across
the corridor at Businesses have done some some good reporting
on this that there are some big since thes as well,
like you know, the government's were making a big push
to Abu Dhabi and sorry, the United Barer Emirates and
some of the large and some of the large immorti
funds are not are not here. So so look it's yeah,
you can you can find some big names, but there
(05:15):
are also some some some places, some some firms that
you'd expect to see that that that that are not there.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yees, So looking at that choice of firms and I
guess also the firms that that are not going to
be attending. What does that really say about what this
government is targeting?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
The government is quite kean philosophically.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
The government thinks that New Zealand would be better off if
it were more connected to international capital markets. If if
if New Zealand was seen as an attractive place to invest,
that would mean there would be more investment. And when
there is more investment, arguably the cost of capital decreases
because people there's so much demand to invest in New
Zealand that that people are willing to people are people
are willing to cut their pricess in theory, so so
(05:54):
so the government's of philosophical ideas more investment equals more
and more foreign investment in New Zealand means of all
the better economy and certainly when you look at the
relationship between foreign investment and things like productivity, and there's
some good evidence that foreign investment is good for that.
In terms of who's invited, I mean, the government doesn't
want any kind of low profile, kind of not all
(06:16):
that flash foreign funds coming and and certainly, you know,
it doesn't look like there's anyone on that list who's
just making up the numbers for it that way. So
so credit to the government, I guess that managed to find,
you know, a fairly solid slate. But the list is
mainly full of firms that have money to invest and
then then firms that have the construction, legal professional services
(06:38):
ability to deliver on on that on that investment, anyone
with money was probably probably welcome, and then I guess
you wouldn't want any kind of sort of dark money obviously,
but it doesn't appear that that's is the case.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
With the schools, a private partner comes along and build
the school and then rather than just building something and
handing over to the ministry or school to maintain, which
you know, I think anyone listening will know from our
school property experience, the government has done really badly. It's
while we have rocking school buildings all over the country.
In a PPP a deliverer of the project in maintainment
(07:15):
for twenty five thirty years now. We've paid that so
it's not going maintenance, but that's built into the contract
and as an availability of payment and a maintenance payment
and all of those things. But they have to maintain
it to specified performance standards. And anyone who visits the
PPP schools that we have out there now will know
that are really well maintained. They're very high quality schools
and so you get what you're paid for.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Private public partnerships are something that this government is keen on,
but Business Desk reported last week that there aren't actually
that many ready to go in the near term.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Is that correct, Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
There's the government publishes these investment statements every cord. I
believe they were started by labor, but the current government
has begun publishing them more regular so that people labor.
Labor wasn't so so flash on publishing them in a
timely manner, so that the government, the government's publishing them
very regularly, so you get a look up of the
hood at what's happening investment wise, and at the moment, Yeah,
(08:13):
there there aren't very many PPPs ready to go to market,
just for I think are the first stage of the
Northland Expressway, which to be fair is a very large
PPP if that happens, and then a couple of smaller projects.
Chris Bishop, I think, in that story said that actually
that's quite a lot to go to market with it once,
and I guess you know, he's probably right, mainly because
that Northland Expressway projects so big. But certainly, you know,
(08:34):
if you if you're having all these people too Ortland
for the summit, you'll want to have a deeper, a
bigger stand to offer. The government is saying, well, look,
this is just the start, and this part of this
is about forging relationships with these businesses so that in
the long term, is we have more of these PPPs
go to market, that New Zealand is sort of a
trusted and reliable partner for them, and so perhaps the
relationships that are built at this at this summit leads
(08:57):
to PPP investments down the track. But you know, obviously
that time will tell whether they're right from thinking that,
But certainly if it goes well, you know, maybe who
knows five years time, some of these other PPPs go
to market. Some of the some of the relationships that
will forged this week be a fruit from terms of investment.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Labour's Farbara Edmonds is going to be there. Does this
suggest that we might finally see some cross party consensus
on infrastructure. Surely Labor has some different priorities on what
infrastructure it wants to see built.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
I think one of the main things for Labor, one
of the main things for PPPs in general, is market certainty.
When things go really bad, a new government comes and
rips up contracts and changes the investment environment, and that
means that as a country, investors are less likely to
come here and sit up shop because they don't know
what the next government's going to do.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
When Labor got into office last time around, it was
not philosophically very keen on PPPs, but.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
It didn't rip up any contracts.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
You know that the Transmission Gully PPP was finished and
had a funding top up and then opened by Labor.
Quite the fact that Labor wasn't very keen on the
idea of PPPs, it's still it's still allowed the project
to go ahead. And and so I think the fact
that Barbaria Edmonds is there sort of says like, hey, look,
you know, we're obviously with a labor party. We absolutely
different values and views on doing infrastructure, but don't be
(10:21):
afraid of the sovereign risk aspect to investing in New
Zealand because we're pro investment too. So I think there's
actually quite a big thing that she is there, quite
a big signal to those investors to come here, and particularly,
you know when you see all the crazy stuff that's
happening in the United States and actually some crazy stuff
that's happening in Europe and South am Euerica too, these
these big funds might look at you know, boring old
New Zealand and think, well, great, invest a few hundred
(10:43):
million dollars in building a road, and we've got this
asset which makes money for us over over a few decades,
and the future government isn't going to come along and
rip it up and cost us, you know, one hundreds
of millions of dollars. That the fact that that Barbaria
Edmonds is there gives them a lot of a lot
of certainty. I think that whatever happens their investments, I say,
under a future government, because obviously these projects will last
for decades, and you know in New Zealand, like the
(11:05):
longest the longest government we've had do we tend to
have these days as a nine year government. So you know,
whatever whatever happens with these investments, these investors know that
and then not to just in future there will be
another government and they want to make sure that their
investments safe under their government too.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Economic growth is a key priority for the government this year.
Do you think that that's resonating with voters.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
It's a good question. I think.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I think voters would like to see economic growth because
economic growth is usually a good thing. So I think
because we haven't had very good economic growth for the
last few years, I imagine voters are thinking, yes, police,
we would like some of that.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Please.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You know, it means generally means higher incomes and a
good of life for New Zealanders. So I think voters
would like to see economic growth, whether or not heavy
with the tactics and the methods of the government is
using to get their economic growth, more foreign investment in particular.
That's that's that remains to be seen. There's a ten
Expayers Union poll out recently which actually showed that voters
(12:02):
were pretty supportive of more tourism, international students and the like.
So most of the government's policy leaders that it's looking
at using are supported by by a decent number of voters.
So so yeah, I suppose based on that poll voters
like what they're seeing. Obviously most current polling, here's the
government behind the opposition. So I suppose you know what,
(12:24):
what does that say? Well, that says the voters is
not very happy with the current government. Although whether whether
that those poles will reversed out once we get economic growth.
You know, typically based on what we've seen in the past,
when the economy is doing well, the government the government's
position and the polls improves. So maybe that's what that's
what the government's hoping for, is that is that once
(12:44):
they get the economic growth, if they get economic growth,
some of that pollingly that the opposition currently enjoys will
will reverse.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Out way for polling.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
So Forny, look, I mean, we've got you know, it's
a tough time for Kiwi's poles are bouncing around a lot.
Our job is to focus on what New Zealanders want
and that is all about us fixing the economy and
making sure we get money into Kiwi's back pockets, and
I can tell you don't give a lot of thought.
I'm here each and every day making sure that we're
actually growing the economy. That's why we're doing the infrastructure summit,
That's why we're going to India. Those are the things
(13:16):
that are actually going to power up the economy and
get Kiyi's more cash in the pop us so that
there's a trend of labor overtaking you. Well, I just
say to you, look, I never have obsessed too much
on poles, as you know when we've talked about them
in the past, and it's the same position.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Well, on the subject of polls, there was a Horizon
Research poll and stuff this week that found that thirty
nine percent of respondents were concerned about the coalition's performance.
Thirty eight percent were disappointed, compared to only ten percent
who felt pleased. So does this put some pressure on
the summit succeeding to really turn things around, or is
this just one small part of a bigger issue for
(13:52):
the coalition?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Well, polls, that's like, it's a quite interestingly worded question.
I suppose it's in the polling question. I mean, not
your question that those poles sort it's quite it sounds
quite similar to a right track wrong track question, which
is do you feel like the countries on the right
track and do you feel or on the wrong track?
And so voters feel like the countries are on the
wrong track, that tends to vote very bad as a
(14:14):
leading indicator for the party vote performance. So if the
voters are feeling negatively about the government, about the country
and the direction it's on, that tends to show up
in a few weeks or months and the party vote
performance of the government. Yeah, I think what their horizon
poll shows is what a number of right and wrong
track tolls and economic sentiment polls are shown, which is
that people are not feeling very good. People are not
(14:34):
feeling very good about the state of the economy and
the country, and therefore the government that runs the country
is not performing well. Like that does for pressure, I mean,
not so much on the summit, Like I don't think
the government is going to succeed or failed depending on
the summit, but it does put pressure on the government
to sort of actually deliver something tangible to voters before
the next election, just so it does have something to say,
(14:55):
you know, to vote as well that we're making the
country better because because of the exposed and I suppose
whether summit might be successful and achieving their aim as
if the summit's able to court investment from someone and
because of that investment and infrastructure project is accelerated. The
ex party has this idea of accelerating infrastructure investment by
simply allowing more or less say well, look, if you
(15:18):
want to if there's any infrastructure project out there that
you think you can build and with no assistance from
the government, then you know, we would like to hear
from you. And if you can do it without us
putting up any money, then there's a chance you'll be.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Able to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And then they look at that as a way of
accelerating investment, you know, or even when you look at
the roads that we want to build over the next
of thirty thirty years, we have a long pipeline of roads.
If a private investor comes and says, look, you know
that road that you want to build in fifteen years time,
I could do that as a PvP if you let
me start tomorrow, And that sort of works that way
where private investors look at the slate and if they
like something or else they can bring it forward, maybe
(15:52):
very downstream of this summit. You see stuff like that,
and the government would would then be able to go
to verses and say, look, as a result of our
investment changes, result of us courting this capital, we've actually
started to close the infrastructure deficite thanks to private capital.
You know, I'm not sure you'll see a massive changes
before the election though, because these things, particularly in the
infrastructure world, things move pretty slow, So I wouldn't be
getting ahead of myself.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, Like, are you expecting it to go well or yeah?
Is it just too short term thinking to think in
terms of success or failure about this?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I think if we see some projects Anington in the
short term, then I think it will be a success.
But I yeah, I don't. I wouldn't be expecting something
too tangible from it.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Thanks for joining us, Thomas no Wiries. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
That's it for this episode of The Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at zidherld dot co dot nzen. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sills. I'm Richard Martin. Subscribe to the
Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts,
and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
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