Q+A with Jack Tame Infrastructure: How we need to change our choices
Feb 21, 2026
Margaret Mutu, Māori Studies professor advocating Te Tiriti and consensus decision-making. Kenneth Roth, former Human Rights Watch director on international accountability and pressure tactics. Geoff Cooper, head of New Zealand’s Infrastructure Commission with a national plan prioritising maintenance, funding fixes and staged projects. They discuss infrastructure risks, targeted leverage for rights abuses, and Māori co-governance and democratic practice.
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Prioritise Maintenance Over New Builds
- Geoff Cooper says maintenance matters more than new builds and that 60% of spending should go to upkeep rather than new assets.
- He warns capital investments carry long tails of operating and maintenance costs that future generations must fund.
Stage And Phase Projects To Fit Budgets
- Stage and phase projects to fit within what New Zealand can afford rather than announcing unaffordable mega-projects.
- Optimise around realistic budgets and sequence work to reduce cost overruns and deliverable risk.
User-Pays Gives Transport Funding Edge
- Transport's National Land Transport Fund can sustain replacement, renewal and modest upgrades because it's a user-pays model.
- Other sectors lack equivalent stable funding, making maintenance gaps worse elsewhere.
