Infrastructure boss: Tolls and charges needed before new projects
Saturday, 28 February 2026
The head of the Infrastructure Commission, Geoff Cooper, says New Zealand must use demand‑management tools like tolls and congestion charges far more before deciding to build new roads.
He says that while many will see “equity” issues in such tools there is just as much of an issue with the country building expensive projects it doesn’t actually need.
Cooper sat down for an extended interview with The Post following the release of its 30-year infrastructure plan - and some of the political fallout following it.
The report, which the Government must respond to but not necessarily follow, calls for a major reprioritisation of infrastructure spending away from transport and towards electricity and health, and towards keeping what we have running well rather than creating new infrastructure.
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It suggested that 60% of all new Infrastructure spending should go towards maintenance and renewal, double the 30% now.
But it was the commission’s suggestion for a new toll - not just on the new Auckland Harbour Bridge, but the old one - which has faced some of the biggest political scrutiny.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has ruled such a toll out while the Taxpayers’ Union has called on the Government to do the same - arguing that only new roads should face charges, not old ones.
There has also been a spirited debate about the prospect of using congestion charging on the Mount Victoria tunnel in Wellington before committing to building a new one - something the Green Party has called strongly for.
Report ‘unequivocal’
Cooper said the report was “unequivocal” about governments using demand management tools such as tolling and congestion charges on existing infrastructure before committing to new projects.
“The plan is unequivocal on this in all major cities. Before you get to a world of doing big capital works, you should really exhaust the demand management tools you have first and then ask the question, you know, do do we need this? Do we need this asset?” Cooper said.
He said concerns about the fairness of charging people had to be balanced with the fairness of building unneeded infrastructure.
“I think oftentimes you will run into this question of equity of demand management. But I would put to you that there is an equity element associated with building an asset that you might not need, and that has to be funded too. And I think overbuilding a network has just as many equity implications as running good demand management practices.”
He said unneeded roads would constrain future governments from making choices that made more sense at the time.
“One of the most risky things you can do as an asset owner is bring on a bunch of capacity - that you have to maintain - that you don't need. These assets will need to be renewed and replaced depending on what the depreciation rate is - you bake that into your budget …that would compromise other things.”
Cold water on RoNS
The commission’s plan comes as the Government faces renewed pressure over the affordability of its huge programme of Roads of National Significance (RoNS).
The plan pours cold water on the real need for several of these “RoNS”.
Indeed it suggests six of them in the programme might not even be needed within the scope of its plan - which runs until 2055.
It suggests that one road the Government is putting through a fast-track consenting process and has already put tens of millions of dollars into - stage 2 of the Takitimu Northern Link - won’t be needed until at the very earliest 2035, with its central estimate suggesting it won’t be needed until 2045.
The four-lane expressway in the Bay of Plenty is expected to start construction next year.
It also suggests that the two new tunnels in Wellington, which National committed to as an election promise in 2023, might not be needed until the mid-2040s - although there was more uncertainty around this.
Cooper said the plan expressed those timeframes as ranges because it knew it could not predict the future - hence the need for governments to not tie themselves too strongly to projects before it was clear where demand would be.
“What we’re talking about here is demand-side uncertainty. And I know this seems like a boring topic, until all of a sudden, heaps more people come than what you thought, which is the world we live in in a place like Auckland, and you need to bring these things forward,” Cooper said.
“The commission has always said you shouldn't be planning for the next project. You should be planning for what you think is sort of like the maximum number [of projects], and then have the agility to bring things forward or push them back, as you see different regional trends.”
Cooper said it was true but “old news” that the RoNS weren’t affordable in one big go and would need serious phasing.
He said he had been encouraged by Transport Minister Chris Bishop’s discussion of “phasing” RoNS in and it felt as though they were “directionally” aligned.
Bishop has been hinting that the Government will have “more to say” on the phasing and prioritisation of the RoNs since October.
Following the report’s release he said the Government would actively consider using demand management tools on existing roads as a “factor” when planning new roads, but later made clear that this didn’t change the Government’s commitment to Wellington’s tunnel upgrades.
“We are giving active consideration to what time-of-use pricing might do to transport projects, you have to factor these things in because they are a mechanism for demand management in making more efficient use of existing infrastructure,” Bishop said.
“Your general proposition that time-of-use pricing affects the viability of projects, or at least the necessity of projects, your proposition is correct.”
The political difficulty
Cooper said he understood the political difficulty in doing what the commission recommended and not giving iron-clad commitments to new projects until it was clear they were needed.
Cooper said the challenge was explaining to voters that the Government was planning responsibly for future needs, even if it could not yet commit to a specific project
He pointed to one area where the public seemingly had accepted the case for massively postponing a project - Auckland Airport’s second runway.
“Post-Covid, they looked at demand and said: ‘We need to push this thing out, because the demand is simply not there.’ And what was sort of interesting about that case study is that it didn't excite the imagination of like: ‘How can we delay it?!’“
“It was seen as a very reasonable thing for an asset owner to say: ‘Look if we continue to do this, we're going to have to increase user charges to maintain an asset nobody needs. And why would we do that?’”