Latest news with #ErinSpeedy
Scoop
25-06-2025
- General
- Scoop
Cautious Optimism Over Prioritisation Of Defence Infrastructure In National Infrastructure Plan
After decades of decay and delay, Sailors, Soldiers and Aviators across Aotearoa are hoping today's infrastructure announcement will kick the Government into action to finally invest in the places they live, work, and train. The NZ Infrastructure Commission's first National Infrastructure Plan released today, recommends the prioritisation of five New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) Estate projects. Mission Homefront Director and Co-Founder, Erin Speedy said it's heartening news for personnel and their whanau, who have quite literally been left out in the cold for decades. 'It's almost a sigh of relief that the Infrastructure Commission has recognised not just the importance of the Defence Estate, but the desperate and dire need that something needs to be done urgently to improve the quality of life of those who sacrifice so much for our country.' Successive Governments have neglected the Defence Estate to the tune of more than $1billion in maintenance and regeneration alone. A majority of the buildings were built in WWII and there is minimal to no remaining useful life left in most assets, (70% of estate has less than 20 years remaining useful life, 10% already beyond its design life) so it was about time someone finally listened, she said. 'The impact on personnel is severe. Being forced to live in and work from crumbling buildings that are cold, damp, mouldy, asbestos riddled and not fit for purpose takes a toll on physical and mental health, has huge health and safety risks and decreases morale and retention.' The Government's own papers also detail how the lack of funding into the Estate and substandard and unsafe conditions have impacted personnel readiness and availability which means the NZDF is not optimised to respond to current day requirements. Mission Homefront's research found the NZDF's substandard housing and accommodation made 62% of adults and children sick. Meanwhile 73% also reported black mould, dampness and draughts in their housing. Speedy said the devil would be in the details for the projects to be funded and ground broken, sooner rather than later. However she was cautiously optimistic that this would be a push in the right direction to finally provide safe and healthy working, living and training facilities that will protect New Zealand's sailors, soldiers and aviators.
Newsroom
25-06-2025
- Business
- Newsroom
Why agreeing on infrastructure priorities matters to sick kids
Analysis: First, Erin Speedy shed tears of frustration, trying to bring up her children in a cold military house at Waiouru. It was damp, it was mouldy, and her children suffered respiratory infections. Then, she stopped crying and picked up a pen. Speedy, the wife of an army corporal, published an open letter to the Defence Minister at Newsroom Pro. 'I ask you minister, have you visited one of your military camps to speak to those on the ground? Do you truly understand the sacrifices we make as families?' That was in May last year. The following month, the Defence Force advertised for a builder to begin work on 50 new homes, along with a park and playground, at the Waiouru camp – but still nothing happened. Then in this year's Budget, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced $16 million to lease better homes, while designing fit-for-purpose modern homes for personnel and their families. And this week, the NZ Infrastructure Commission publishes its first, groundbreaking draft National Infrastructure Plan, in which it endorses 17 projects as priorities. The big winner is the Defence Force, whose nine bases and camps have been green lit for big upgrades, especially to troop and family accommodation. Defence infrastructure general manager Phil Gurnsey says the endorsements reflect the national significance of future investment in the defence estate, and benefits to the NZ people, economy and security. 'It gives ministers further assurance that our investment aligns with national objectives.' According to the commission's assessment, which has been provided at Newsroom's request, the Defence Force provides about 1800 houses to 1400 regular force members – but those houses are more than 60 years old, in poor condition, and require upgrading urgently to improve poor conditions and to meet Healthy Homes legislation. 'Endorsement as a national infrastructure priority at Stage 2 indicates that this is a priority proposal, which can progress to a detailed business case to identify a preferred option,' the assessment says. 'Monetising the costs and benefits of options where possible would significantly strengthen the case.' Infrastructure Commission chief executive Geoff Cooper says the Defence Force was able to quantify its problems, provide proportionate solutions, and demonstrate how they'd worked through the options to get there. Essentially, he explains to Newsroom, this evidence-based endorsement is intended to take key infrastructure projects out of the political bear-pit, so the construction sector, international investors and all New Zealanders can be confident the country's priorities won't chop and change with every change of government. The Defence Force Homes for Family programme and Devonport naval base regeneration have both been endorsed to stage 2; its plans to build new Linton army camp barracks and upgrade Ohakea air force base have been endorsed to stage 3. 'When we endorse a project to stage 3, the advice is, we think this one's ready to go,' Cooper says. KiwiRail and the NZ Transport Agency have been less successful. The commission has released to Newsroom a list of the 31 applications that have not achieved even stage 1 endorsement, at this stage. Most are the pipe dreams of individual activists and lobby groups, but among them are the Auckland Strategic Rail Programme, and the Marsden Point Rail Link, as well as highway upgrades from Tauranga through to the Desert Road. Let's highlight one major concern identified in this first draft plan, and one solution. The concern is New Zealand's utter inability to get bang for its buck from capital spending. In the last decade, this country invested more public capital in infrastructure, as a share of GDP, than any other country in the OECD – yet it ranked 37th on the efficiency of that investment. As the problems with our drinking water and wastewater networks have shown, we're putting money into vote-winning glamour projects while failing to fund basic maintenance and renewals. The OECD ranks New Zealand fourth-to-last for asset management practices, the report says. Cooper sees that, as a runner, getting out and about. 'I've been in Wellington now for about five years, and the first thing that strikes you when you run around Wellington is just that there's water everywhere. And that's what happens when leakage rates are in the order of 40 to 50 percent.' How does that manifest? 'That looks like schools with leaking roofs, lessons taught in rotting buildings; sewage leaks in our hospitals; mouldy, poor quality defence accommodation; service outages of commuter rail and ferries; and police stations with black mould, leaks, and asbestos. We can do better.' The commission points to fragmented planning, regulatory inefficiencies, complex approval processes and suboptimal use of existing assets. It warns politicians against repeatedly changing key rules such as resource management legislation, and energy market and emissions reduction policies. These changes disrupt investment. Infrastructure providers hold off until policy settles down, leading to a backlog of investment and extra congestion on networks. Nick Leggett, the chief executive of the infrastructure industry body, goes further. 'This report is candid and honest about the poor bang for the buck that we get from infrastructure,' he says. 'When you have a whole lot of projects planned and the sector is geared up to deliver them, and then they're cancelled because of political change, and you have to make a whole lot of people redundant – and then the tap gets turned on again two years later, and you've got to bring everybody back … that's what costs us the money. So that's why pipeline certainty is so important.' Who's to blame for this inefficiency? 'Pipeline uncertainty costs us between $2.3 billion and $4.7 billion a year. The private sector will price a lack of certainty and clarity into a job.' Surely, the infrastructure and construction sector itself must bear some responsibility for using the investment more efficiently? 'The sector could bring more to the table, yes, absolutely.' Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop agrees politicians and the sector need to work together. He says the Government is determined to work alongside the industry and other political parties to establish a broad consensus about what needs to change. A key solution (beyond maintaining our existing infrastructure!) is user-pricing. The draft plan recommends user charges fully fund investment, guide efficient use of networks, and distribute the benefits of network provision. New Zealanders will soon see that rolling out in, for instance, water metering in pretty much every district, the tolling of new highways, and time-of-use charges starting on Auckland's roads. When I press Cooper on this recommendation, he acknowledges that the commission isn't saying all infrastructure should pay its own way. For instance, he wouldn't argue that cyclists should bear the full cost of cycleways, or that EV owners should pay higher road user charges because their heavy cars cause more wear and tear. But these are discussions worth having, he agrees. Social infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and the defence estate are also public goods that shouldn't be funded through user charges. Clearly, it would be hard to demand that families struck by storms and other natural disasters should have to pay the military to evacuate them from their rooftops. Which brings us back to the Defence estate. Erin Speedy has now founded advocacy group Mission Homefront. 'It does make me a little bit emotional,' she says. 'I mean, if these projects go ahead, it's going to make a huge difference to the quality of life on so many Defence personnel and their whānau. Successive governments have made the Defence estate a political kicking ball.' Both sides of Parliament agree on the value of the Infrastructure Commission drawing up an evidence-led pipeline of priorities, so that key long-term infrastructure decisions can be removed from the cynical cut and thrust of electioneering. 'It's really heartening to see an independent commission recognise the desperate and dire need that something needs to be done, and urgently,' Speedy says. 'It absolutely does need to be taken out of the bear pit and depoliticised.'
