After WWII, to cater to a massively growing population, we as a nation (aka the government) spent between 10 - 15% of GDP on infrastructure (data from the Kaka podcast by Bernard Hickey); now we are spending somewhere between 5 - 10% of GDP on infrastructure.

So we used to spend roughly DOUBLE on infrastructure than we do today. We don't necessarily suck at infrastructure, we just don't invest like we used to.

Despite what National is trying to get you to believe, NZ is in a fairly good position WRT debt to GDP ratio. We could totally invest an extra 100 billion over 10 years to improve our infrastructure; it would basically double our ratio (current $83B to $395B or 21% in 2023 See: Stats NZ) this is "net debit" not sure what the difference is between net and total debit but I didn't see a source for total debit (if there is a difference). Assuming the economy keeps growing at the 1.3% in this link the debit ratio would look something like $200B to $450B or 44%.

According to this we are already at 50.99%; I'm not sure how this relates to "net debit" on the stats NZ page.

The numbers are a bit vague, depending on source, the picture is pretty good, NZ is doing well internationally WRT debit to GDP ratio; we can afford major investment in infrastructure.....unfortunately we would rather send billions overseas in interest payments to foreign banks by squeezing the housing supply thus jacking up the prices indefinitely.

[–] TagMeInSkipIGotThis 4 points 9 months ago

This! So we under invest, and since the 80s have completely shat on public works and relied on private contracting & consulting to get things done.

Ideally we would reinstate the Ministry of Public Works and then slowly ramp up the spend on that $100B investment to give time to rebuild the experience and expertise that will eventually give us better value for the spend.

I read an article a few months ago, can't find it now unfortunately, but it was arguing that making simple GDP comparisons between countries was getting harder as the purchasing power in different countries is so different. What we spend building a road vs Asian countries per km is kinda eye opening.