Allan Pollard: Civil Contractors New Zealand Chief Executive on six billion dollars of infrastructure projects kicking off

A warning that a stretched workforce could threaten the future of the country's infrastructure.  

Six billion dollars of projects including roads, schools and hospitals will kick off between now and late December.

Civil Contractors New Zealand Chief Executive Allan Pollard says 15-thousand construction workers have lost their jobs over the past year. 

He told Ryan Bridge the next six months will be achievable - but it could be a strain longer term. 

Pollard says we need to do some major scaling up of the work force over the next two years.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Only the government's promised boots on the ground for the
six billion dollars worth of infrastructure they announced yesterday. Construction
due to start on projects like hospital units, schools and
roads between now and Christmas. They reckon four and a
half thousand jobs will be created per billion dollars spent.
Alan Pollard is several contractors in New Zealand. Chief Executive Ellen,
good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good one.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Right now, did we know the timeline the start date
for these projects already? I mean some of them we did.
But was this announcement useful?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well? I think I was useful. We certainly knew the
projects are coming, but we didn't really have any clear
invocation when just then they said the shuttles make it
on the ground. So it's very helpful to know that
within a very short time that of work coming to market.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Is the industry ready for it? Can we scale up,
get the people back that we've fired, or is it
very ready to go? Now?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, we do have capacity, and now the industry has
been understrained though, as you've noted for about the last
twelve months and a cross construction, we've lost about fifteen
thousand workers. So you know there is some capacity to
so up work. It is going to be challenging though.
You know that's that over time, as more and more
protests come to market, it's going to be quite difficult
to find people.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So when do you envisage that we might hit a
crux point in terms of staffing and workforce.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, it very much depends on when the projects are scheduled.
But if you look at the government's infrastructure plans, the
land transport plans and local government plans, there are a
lot of infrastructure investment needed in coming probably over the
next eighteen to twenty four months, so we're going to
have to scale up quite quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Chris Bishop says that there's you know, they got the
National Infrastructure Pipeline, which is by Infrastructure Commission managed by them.
They are showing planned future works totaling two hundred and
seven billion dollars across central, local government and private sector.
Is that all lined up, paid for dates ready or

(01:58):
is that all just a bit get this point, that's.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
All sort of and anticipated through the various planning processes,
not necessarily funding undocated at also, and that's our challenge
that it's a very healthy pipeline at work that's coming
into the future, but in terms of the health of
the civil industry in particular, we need to have proteins
coming to market now, so that's why this announcement is

(02:23):
actually very timely.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Ellen, appreciate your time this morning. Allan Poloche, executive at
several contractors in New Zealand. For more from earlier edition
with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks it be
from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.