Barney Irvine: Northern Infrastructure Forum Executive Director on the need for bipartisan support for infrastructure

Tuning into the public's stance on infrastructure could stand politicians in good stead.  

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop's laid out his plans for the industry and announced a new National Infrastructure Agency.  

He invites more debate across Parliament over long term planning to ensure a system that lasts.  

Northern Infrastructure Forum Executive Director Barney Irvine told Mike Hosking the big political divisions over infrastructure don't reflect the public mood. 

He says there's a lot more consensus among the public over infrastructure, and most people just want the government of the day to get on and do stuff. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Got some big picture stuff from the government yesterday. Of
course we are to have a National Infrastructure Agency. It'll
bring together partners and crownd the whole idea of some
sort of framework, thirty year plan all that. Northern Infrastructure
Forum Executive Director Barney Irvine with us on this, Barney morning,
Good morning, sounds good, is it real?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah? Well, look it's still very much at the conceptual stage.
A lot of this and there's a lot of order
to flow under the bridge and a lot of detail
to be filled in there. But look, the key thing
for us is that it takes things in the right
direction in terms of, you know, taking us towards more

(00:39):
robust decision making based on outcomes rather than politics, towards
providing the market with the clarity and the consistency it
needs to see, and towards just driving better, faster, cheaper
infrastructure delivery right across the board. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
See, once again that all sounds good. But the difficulty
I had in Hipkins displayed it yesterday is we have
a group of people who are diametrically opposed to each
other ideologically speaking on things like infrastructure in this country.
Unless you can close that gap, you're going nowhere fast.
Isn't that reasonable?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Oh? Look absolutely, and you know therein realize the rub
I guess a couple of things, you know, give us
a bit of confidence with it. And one of those
is that this sort of approach has been been used
off offshore and overseas to do good effect in places
like Australia and the UK, and to an extent Denmark
as well. So you know what, why can't we at least,

(01:37):
you know, why can't we adopt that that sort of
approach ourselves and at least move things somewhat further forward.
The other comment I'd make is that you know, while
we have seen these these these big political divisions over infrastructure,
I don't think that's reflective of the public mood, right.
I think there's a lot more consensus among the public
about infrastructure, and the vast majority of people just want

(02:00):
to see the governor of the day get on and
do starts and and so if the if the politicians
tune in to that public mood, I think that that
that that that stands up in pretty good stead to
move ahead or to move in this direction.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
In this direction, I like your optimism, Barney Gowell. With that,
Barney over on Who's the Northern Infrastructure Forum Executive Director.
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