Poll: New Zealanders love the ‘mega projects’ despite commission’s warning on costs
Thursday, 26 February 2026
New data shows Kiwis overwhelmingly back the country building infrastructure “mega projects” - just as an official body throws cold water on them.
The polling also shows that flood projects and renewal of the electricity grid are far more popular than Government priorities like the Roads of National Significance and the proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import terminal.
New Zealand’s troubled relationship with infrastructure has been in the spotlight in recent weeks as the much-anticipated infrastructure plan was released by the official Infrastructure Commission - raising the alarm about a pipeline of unfunded “mega projects”, particularly in transport.
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The commission is a statutory body and its recommendations must be responded to by the Government - but they can be rejected.
“With more mega projects in planning than the country can realistically fund or deliver, providers should prioritise low-cost, incremental upgrades over waiting for expensive, fully formed solutions,” the commission wrote.
“This is especially important in health and transport, where mega projects threaten to crowd out other priorities like essential maintenance and renewals.”
But results from The Post/Freshwater Strategy poll with Infrastructure New Zealand found 82% of Kiwi voters believed “mega projects” were important for the country’s long-term future, with 32% believing they were “very important”. Just 14% said they were not important.
Almost half (44%) believed the Government could put more focus on mega projects, with 12% saying there should be “much more” focus. About a third (34%) thought there should be about as much focus as now, while 17% said there should be less focus.
Nick Leggett, head of industry body Infrastructure NZ*, said the results were not surprising and reflected the reality that big projects were nation-shaping and important.
“We do have a history of building large projects that we know are going to significantly add to people's lives and to improve economic performance,” Leggett said.
He agreed with the commission’s push to spend more on renewal and maintenance, but said that didn’t mean the country could not still build big new things.
“We've got to look after the infrastructure we've already got better. That is unquestionably a challenge that we've got to grapple with, and that is going to involve the discipline of understanding assets and funding their maintenance and renewal better than we do at the moment. But that shouldn't be a stark contrast to the need to continue to grow and build New Zealand's prosperity.”
Leggett believed the Government should have two to three “mega projects” going at all times so there was less “stop start” and a more continual stream of projects to support employment and the economy.
“My question at the moment is: ‘What have we got?’ At the moment, I guess we've got some Roads of National Significance, which are important, what else? Right? I mean, it can't just be roads.”
Kiwis back flood projects and grid upgrades
Leggett noted that the poll suggested that the most popular “mega projects” in the poll were distributed upgrades, not just huge singular projects.
Asked about specific mega projects, more Kiwis backed every one put to them than opposed them, with the most popular being “large-scale flood protection for regional cities” - backed by 77% of respondents.
Next up was a national renewable energy “super grid” with 61% support, followed by electrification of passenger rail and a new inter-island port on Clifford Bay, near Blenheim.
“Kiwis say: ‘Yep, bigger projects are important’, and when you actually break it down, they are based around protecting what we've already got through flood protection for major cities, they are about moving to renewables,” Leggett said.
The least popular project on the list was the Government’s proposed LNG import terminal, with just 30% backing it. Yet this still put it in net positive territory as just 19% of people actively opposed it.
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop has shown some willingness to “phase” his Government’s extremely expensive Roads of National Significance, which will cost tens of billions of dollars that petrol taxes won’t be able to fund, but not to cancel any of them altogether.
Half (49%) of Kiwis backed these Roads of National Significance in the poll, while just 11% actively opposed them.
Freshwater Strategy interviewed 1039 eligible New Zealand voters aged 18+ online between February 6–12, 2026. Margin of error ±3%. Data weighted to be representative of New Zealand voters.
*The Post/Freshwater Strategy Poll is funded by Infrastructure NZ to encourage debate about issues important to the future of New Zealand.