As New Zealand looks the future of its infrastructure with the release of a 30 year plan, IPWEA is poised to lead the way in changes to the nation’s asset management practices.
The Thirty Year New Zealand Infrastructure Plan 2015 was released by the National Infrastructure Unit (NIU) in August.
It follows two prior reports in 2010 and 2011, which addressed short term priorities for infrastructure investment and regulatory reform and established an operating framework for decision makers respectively.
The Plan’s overarching aim was to ensure the country’s infrastructure was resilient, coordinated and contributed to a strong economy and high living standards by 2045, through better use of existing assets and better allocation of new investment.
The Plan called for commitment to action from a number of strategic partners, including IPWEA Australasia and IPWEA New Zealand.
IPWEA NZ president Peter Higgs says the Institute would be working with the NIU to establish a program to enhance the capability, productivity and leadership in asset management throughout the public sector.
“IPWEA is recognised as a leader and a go-to in asset management,” Higgs says.
The plan also calls on IPWEA NZ to:
“Establish and lead a collaborative cross-sector programme to enable: increased understanding of asset management amongst public sector capital asset owners; the wide collection, development, synthesis, and dissemination of exemplary practice standards, manuals, guidelines and other resources across the public works sector; the integration of investment and optimised decision-making processes and tools in asset management planning and long-term infrastructure planning.”
IPWEA updates to various guidelines and practice manuals were also agreed upon.
“IPWEA NZ will be jointly developing a one, two and three year work plan to deliver on these actions, starting with a workshop in early November,” Higgs says.
An urgent need for better asset management practices and training has been demonstrated through a number of reports, Higgs says.
“A 2012 report by the Office of the Auditor General on public works (local and central government) in New Zealand noted that while 70 per cent of all assets had asset plans, only 40 per cent were being managed in accordance with the plans,” he says.
“There is a significant, growing gap between actual asset renewals and those programmed by asset plans with a corresponding funding gap.
“There is a bow wave of renewals about to hit the infrastructure sector.”
NIU senior analyst Sam Thomas agrees IPWEA’s role will be a crucial one.
“New Zealand has 78 local councils all managing local infrastructure, for a country with a total population of around 4.5 million people,” he says.
“This represents a large degree of fragmentation and the pool of skilled asset managers necessarily becomes diluted.
“IPWEA NZ have done much work to set high-quality standards such as the International Infrastructure Management Manual, NAMS, that we want to see implemented more thoroughly.
“Several members of IPWEA also work closely with infrastructure providers and therefore provide useful insights into individual sectoral issues.”
Thomas says a key part of IPWEA’s role will be to help improve the collection of data, which would then be used to inform decision making.
“Multiple reports have demonstrated poor use of data in the public sector,” Thomas says.
Taking a collaborative approach to the plan had played a role in its largely positive reception, Thomas says.
“New Zealand’s infrastructure is managed by central government, local government and the private sector and end-users include members of the public and businesses,” he says.
“With such a wide variety of key stakeholders responsible for delivering the actions in the Plan and using infrastructure services, a common understanding of the challenges, opportunities and solutions is necessary to ensure success.”
The plan can be viewed here.