Failed Conference

Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, March 14th, 2025 - 46 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, infrastructure, making shit up, national, same old national, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Luxon’s team have delivered zero deals out of the multibillionaire conference on infrastructure. This is a fail.

This conference exposed this government using a specific highly commercialised language to camouflage their lack of actual ability to do the business.

Only those who haven’t dealt with this government can trust them.

Multiple Cabinet Ministers who spoke at the Conference proclaiming  a definite and secure “pipeline” of work for foreign fund managers and constructors, were the same Ministers who in the course of a year had actively killed off the Cook Strait ferries and port rebuild worth over two billion, the final stretch of the Auckland busway to Manukau centre worth upwards of a billion, the battery project in central Otago worth multiple billions, crushed the housing entity that had formed multiple large scale public housing projects with multiple commercial partners, and many more commercial and financial relationships that had been years in the making. This government also came within a whisker of completely destroying the Dunedin Hospital build worth over a billion dollars.

This government has done all it could to show that it would destroy every single protective rule to enable bankers and developers to make money: legislated 149 specific projects out of almost all ability of citizens to oppose them by naming them in tailored legislation, destroyed the Resource Management Act, eradicated all previous government procurement rules for quality and environmental and labour standards, minimised the levels of capital banks needed to hold, and many more safeguards gone.

They have been in power for half their term.

They set up this 2-day conference of bankers and constructors and officials to promote New Zealand as a safe destination for foreign public investment. They have made New Zealand an unsafe government for business relationships.

Not a single deal was announced.

Some potential investors made warm noises. Thanks for the lunch.

They have now all flown away back to their centres of international capital. Full of handshakes. Details exchanged. Glossy prospectuses.

Not a single result.

Everyone so far swiped left.

We have to go back as far as 2001’s Knowledge Wave Conference hosted by Prime Minister Helen Clark to get that many high end players in one room concentrating on the good of New Zealand and on finance. The Clark government actually delivered many long term industry clusters with long term benefit to New Zealand. This one didn’t.

We still don’t have a regulatory regime for investors and constructors to get in and form offshore wind farms.

Potential investors can see that single ministers are in place for less than 3 years, rather than the multiple years needed to negotiate a public private partnership. 

Labour is very clear that while they may have to honour any signed deal they inherit in 2026, they will evaluate any proposal on its merits and whether it’s good for New Zealand, and that on core infrastructure like prisons and hospitals and schools there will be no private ownership.

This government cannot land a successful school lunch let alone a new major infrastructure deal.

It is politically incompetent that after months of planning the event and half way into their term, this most commercial of governments doesn’t have the skill to land a single deal.

46 comments on “Failed Conference ”

  1. thinker 1
    14 March 2025 at 2:44 pm

    From what I saw on TV, this conference was more for the benefit of voters than anyone else.

    Of course, these investors took a couple of days to dip a toe in the water, but seems not much more than that.

    Tv news showed one of the senior investors saying "if you've got a string of projects, we'll look at it. If you only have 3 or 4 then it's a quick conversation that won't end well".

    At this stage, we don't have much. These investor nomads aren't likely to get excited by talk of a second harbour crossing, no matter how many times the PM says 'geowth'. What kind of crossing, how much will it cost, when are you going to roll it out and when do you want our money.

    Imagine asking Taylor Swift to come to NZ and then saying, "We're thinking about a show somewhere in NZ, one day. Can we get your support? She'd say "Call me when you've got something serious to offer ", and I think thats what we got yesterday.

    Reply
  2. tsmithfield 2
    14 March 2025 at 3:00 pm

    Advantage,
    It would be quite unusual to get business straight away from such events. At the very least, even keen investors would want to do a lot of due diligence before deciding to invest in a multi million dollar project.

    I see it as more of a publicity exercise to get overseas entities keen on bidding for projects that come up. I guess the proof will be in the pudding further down the road.

    I think it is more about demonstrating that NZ is worth investing in. Hence, it was framed as a joint ventre between National and Labour, so that potential investors could feel confident that they would have the rug pulled out from under them each time there is a change of government.

    Reply
    • Ad 2.1
      14 March 2025 at 3:16 pm

      Disagree.

      This event was planned months in advance and this government has staked its entire economic reputation on an ability to make commercial deals.

      Any political organiser would have ensured they had a deal worth announcing. That would be true whether the industry conference was with the minister responsible for film, international trade, arms, fruit, research and development, hotels, or cars.

      Reply
      • tsmithfield 2.1.1
        14 March 2025 at 3:58 pm

        Any political organiser would have ensured they had a deal worth announcing.

        But if there were a deal worth announcing, then it wouldn't have occurred due to the conference. It would have been due to work done well before that.

        The best that can be hoped for from these sorts of events is that overseas investors will express interest in getting involved in projects as they come up. Many of these investors may never have thought about investing in NZ prior to this. But now they might. If that has been achieved, I would say the conference is a success.

        Reply
        • mickysavage 2.1.1.1
          14 March 2025 at 4:07 pm

          Do you mean they would hold this big as conference, invite people from all over the world, get senior ministers to give speeches and have no idea if anything will come of it?

          Seems rather weird.

          Reply
          • tsmithfield 2.1.1.1.1
            14 March 2025 at 4:22 pm

            and have no idea if anything will come of it?

            Such is the nature of marketing a lot of the time.

            How is this conference, in principle any different to taking an overseas trade delegation to a potential new market? We might as well not be doing that either if immediate sales are required to be generated as a measure of success.

            And, saying they have "no idea" is a bit inaccurate I think.

            It is quite reasonable to make assumptions that a certain percentage of those attend will eventually invest here. A bit like a sales person who increases the likelihood of success by making more calls and tapping in to the percentage of calls that lead to success.

            And, Labour were involved with this as well, and presented to the conference.

            Reply
            • Incognito 2.1.1.1.1.1
              14 March 2025 at 4:36 pm

              And, Labour were involved with this as well, and presented to the conference.

              What’s your point? Labour’s not on the Treasury benches but hopefully that’ll change next year, so are you saying that we should wait for a deal with the next new government till then?

              Reply
            • thinker 2.1.1.1.1.2
              14 March 2025 at 5:46 pm

              "How is this conference, in principle any different to taking an overseas trade delegation to a potential new market?"

              Before trade delegations go to the other country, months of fruitful work (as Sir Humphrey would say) will have been spent by underlings getting deals in place, getting agreements negotiated.

              That's how come trade delegations are able to step off the plane and sign free trade agreements within a few hours.

              I'm expecting Luxon to come back with a free trade agreement, signed, with an implementation date. After which, kiwi exporters of goods and services can do deals.

              If that doesn't happen, it was just a goodwill visit, achieving nothing more than the sum of it's parts.

              An experienced Soap-Pusher like Luxon should to leave the Indians with their mouths open, amazed at the sophisticated negotiating tactics of the New Zealand delegation.

              Let's see.

              Reply
              • joe …
                15 March 2025 at 11:13 am

                Has any of Luxon's multiple trips overseas landed a cents worth of business, signed and sealed?
                I'm not up with everything happening but as a Joe Bloggs, I can't recall anything.

                Reply
          • kate Lang 2.1.1.1.2
            15 March 2025 at 6:08 pm

            Just advertising themselves at Aotearoa's cost. How much did they spend to do this?

            Reply
      • thinker 2.1.2
        14 March 2025 at 4:45 pm

        (Responding to Ad)

        Exactly

        except to add that some of them might even have been put off by us not knowing when we should be engaging with them, which is when we have a programme of projects, designed, logic-tested, reasonably costed and at the stage when the investors have something to get their teeth into.

        Imagine Luxon fronting up on 'The Dragons Den' TV show. What have you got, Mr Luxon? "I've got a second harbour crossing. Maybe a tunnel, maybe another bridge. Maybe next to the current bridge, maybe somewhere else. Probably in the next 5 years, maybe a bit longer. And, I've got no designs to show you. Who wants to invest?"

        That's very close to what just happened, IMHO.

        Reply
    • bwaghorn 2.2
      14 March 2025 at 4:57 pm

      Can't have been any dodgy middle eastern sheep farmers wanting a farm in a desert.

      Reply
    • joe 2.3
      15 March 2025 at 11:07 am

      confident that they WOULDN'T have the rug pulled out from under them

      Reply
  3. Descendant Of Smith 3
    14 March 2025 at 3:30 pm

    Hey the last National Party business leader big idea conference gave us wait for it – cycle trails. They now hate cycle trails.

    Can't come up with good ideas. They like wide roads cause all they know how to do is U-turns.

    Solar and wind energy is where it should be at. Become independent from fossil fuels. Easily the best thing we could do.

    Reply
    • Margaret Swift 3.1
      16 March 2025 at 8:58 am

      Wind farms are proving to be a waste of money, can't recycle the blades that need changing with monotonous regularity.

      Other countries are scrapping wind farms, so we should take heed and don't waste the money.

      Solar panels on houses with batteries to store the power is what is needed in NZ.

      Reply
      • weka 3.1.1
        16 March 2025 at 9:19 am

        what countries are scrapping wind farms?

        Reply
      • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1.2
        16 March 2025 at 9:42 am

        Other countries are scrapping wind farms…

        Some plans for wind farm projects here and overseas have been 'scrapped' – same goes for solar. But many NZ energy experts believe that both wind and solar are good renewable energy investments for the (foreseeable) future, as are batteries.
        https://zerocarbonact.nz/advancing-solar-and-wind-nzs-path-to-zero-carbon/

        Wind: 6% of NZ’s electricity generation in 2021, projected to be 20-34% by 2035.
        https://www.eeca.govt.nz/insights/energy-in-new-zealand/renewable-energy/wind/

        Solar: 1% of NZ’s electricity generation in 2021, projected to be 1-6% by 2035.
        https://www.eeca.govt.nz/insights/energy-in-new-zealand/renewable-energy/solar/

        Reply
      • Joe90 3.1.3
        16 March 2025 at 9:49 am

        Other countries are scrapping wind farms,

        The big lie in action.

        • 123 Gigawatt of new capacity added between June 2023 and June 2024, after 100 GW in the previous year
        • Global wind power capacity has reached almost 1,1 Terawatt
        • Wind power contributes well above 10% of global power
        • Annual growth rate at 12,6%
        • China exceeds 500 Gigawatt of installed wind capacity
        • A record breaking 150 Gigawatt of new installations are expected for the full year 2024
        • A total capacity of 1,2 million Megawatt to be reached by end of 2024

        https://www.wwindea.org/HYR2024

        Thanks to this process, more than 90% of the weight of the blades is recovered:

        https://www.up-to-us.veolia.com/en/recycling/recycling-used-wind-turbine-blades

        Reply
        • Macro 3.1.3.1
          16 March 2025 at 11:03 am

          And back on my home Isle heart. The Dancing Ladies are a mainstay of the wee island's economy

          Welcome to the community-owned Isle of Gigha, the most southerly and one of the most beautiful of the Hebridean Islands. Seven miles long by a mile and a half wide, Gigha is situated three miles west of the Kintyre peninsula, less than three hour drive from the city of Glasgow.

          Since the community buyout in 2002 the island has gone from strength to strength with a growing population and a sustainable local economy. On this website, you can find out more about the Community Trust as well as other community initatives and news.

          Reply
        • gsays 3.1.3.2
          16 March 2025 at 5:50 pm

          "Thanks to this process, more than 90% of the weight of the blades is recovered:"

          That's 90% of the blades that get cut up then… "These pieces are then transported to a Veolia plant in Missouri,…"

          I had a read of yr link. It's from around 2020. Seems like a lot of greenwash and intentions. Despite their sustainable virtue signaling, 90% of the blades enable more cement production!

          " “We have to apply a very specific recipe," explains Bob Cappadona. "We have a range of shredding and grinding equipment that allows us to reduce the blades to acceptable sizes and shapes for going into the cement kilns.""

          They don't tell us how many of the estimated 43 million tons of blades are going to make it to Missouri…

          I wouldn't be so rude as to call it a lie, more, likely to succumb to spin.

          Reply
      • gsays 3.1.4
        16 March 2025 at 10:48 am

        Round these parts, (Manawatu) its the gearboxes that are being replaced regularly.

        Reply
      • gsays 3.1.5
        16 March 2025 at 5:58 pm

        "Solar panels on houses with batteries to store the power is what is needed in NZ."

        You are correct Margaret. Those batteries can be deep cycle or EV.

        Even with the batteries, there is still a choice whether to be grid tied or not. Houses, schools, marae, community halls…

        Localised resilience, especially in extreme weather events.

        Take the power back!

        In regards wind farms, Anton Oliver took a high profiled stand against Meridian’s Project Hayes back in 2007.
        He reffered to them as a “Government-sanctioned corporate rort.”

        Reply
  4. Darien Fenton 4
    14 March 2025 at 4:17 pm

    Welcome home Chris Liddell. You Trumpist.

    Reply
  5. Incognito 5
    14 March 2025 at 4:18 pm

    What a fizzer!

    Companies who between them control around $6 trillion worth of funds have made their way to Auckland for the government's much-heralded summit.

    More than 100 organisations from 14 international countries heard from government ministers, who showcased areas in their portfolios where there are investment opportunities.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/544835/luxon-closes-infrastructure-summit

    Analysis: It’s enlightening to see the PM and his veritable army of ministers (at least 15 of the 20 Cabinet ministers are here) leveraging the involvement of iwi leaders and opposition Labour politicians in this week’s flagship infrastructure summit.

    Enlightening and a little ironic, because iwi and big Māori trusts weren’t initially on the invite list.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/14/nicola-willis-stability-is-our-middle-name/

    Not a single deal. That’s not very efficient and productive and it certainly not lived up to its hype potential.

    Better luck in India, Mr Luxon.

    Reply
  6. bwaghorn 6
    14 March 2025 at 4:56 pm

    Labour is very clear that while they may have to honour any signed deal they inherit in 2026,

    Why national didn't just make the tax payers pay the penalty then delivery worse for more.$

    Reply
  7. Drowsy M. Kram 7
    14 March 2025 at 6:38 pm

    Luxon’s team have delivered zero deals out of the multibillionaire conference on infrastructure. This is a fail.

    Given this CoC initiative, I'm surprised our CoC govt hasn't already relaunched former PM Key's scheme to make NZ a financial hub.

    Key itching for quick action on financial hub [2 Dec 2010]

    Key backs off financial services 'hub' [13 May 2012]

    Perhaps it's because Key only got as far as the 'tax haven' stage, or maybe NAct are still gauging the electorate's (and Winston's) appetite for further public asset sales.

    Is NZ a tax haven for the rich and dodgy? The Pandora Papers reignite the debate [6 Oct 2021]

    No penance in privatisation [24 Feb 2025]
    Luxon has made sounds of a shifting stance, telling reporters his party is open to longer-term discussions about asset sales, possibly campaigning on specific proposals next year. The pro-privatisation side of the coalition seems to be gaining traction.

    Reply
    • Incognito 7.1
      14 March 2025 at 6:50 pm

      Compared to the current lot, John Key had vision and imagination. The Coalition lacks both and has nothing else to offer than more roads and sell-out of NZ assets to overseas interests. Unfortunately, the Opposition is also bereft of new ideas and even buys into [pun intended] PPPs 🙁

      Reply
      • gsays 7.1.1
        15 March 2025 at 7:21 am

        I'm curious, where do you sit with the increasing the state's capacity to build more of it's own infrastructure?

        Seems like the ideal way to bolster an economy that is based on selling each other houses and dehydrating milk to powder.

        Reply
        • Incognito 7.1.1.1
          16 March 2025 at 10:07 am

          Infrastructure is everywhere and the responsibility of all government, local and national/central. With the Coalition’s over-emphasis on privatisation, at the expense of the public sector, I see a 2-tier system developing just like in Health. This could mean that private interest dominates in shiny new projects and the public sector is relegated to doing repair & maintenance, i.e., the shitty and hard jobs – can you imagine Luxon, Willis, and Bishop organising a Sewage Summit to fix & maintain old pipes and sewage systems?

          For a partnership to flourish between the private and public sectors they have to match each other in knowledge and expertise. When that balance tips too much in favour of consulting and out-sourcing, the synergy changes from a symbiosis to an unbalanced unequal dependency like a parasite living off the public purse – private interests dominate and domineer, i.e., they hold the balance of power.

          This is the context in which I view the various attempts of the Coalition to radically change the landscape, e.g., the Treaty Principles Bill and the more dangerous one, the Regulatory Standards Bill. But the Coalition is adopting a multi-pronged attack on the public sector and the democratic oversight and accountability.

          I don’t think this answered your first question; the second one sounded leading and rhetorical.

          Reply
          • gsays 7.1.1.1.1
            16 March 2025 at 10:34 am

            I agree with yr analysis of this (hopefully short-lived) government.

            If it is to be so unpopular, so divisive and damaging to the economy then it is a prime opportunity for whomever has the levers of power to rebalance the out-sourcing and contracting equation. Not just there, but in other sectors too. Electricity market needs to have Bradford's reforms undone so that energy is elevated to the necessity that it is, not a commodity to be traded amongst speculators in a 'market'.

            To build resilience and capacity of us, the tax payers has to be a vote winner. But.. I'm not hearing it. Kieran McAnulty on RNZ spoke of wariness of PPPs but implied the status quo would continue for the likes of schools hospitals etc. Keep maintaining Fulton Hogan's >$550M profit with our current neo-liberal model.

            Which, when you think about it, is a PPP, just the private sector gets paid up front for it.

            https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018978810/labour-hits-back-at-govt-over-calls-for-privatisation-of-core-infrastructure

            Reply
    • tWig 7.2
      14 March 2025 at 9:53 pm

      I did catch a quick article somewhere that the cocs wanted to establish a freeport zone in NZ, another failed UK Tory economic 'initiative'. Sorry, I've looked but can't find it.

      Essentially the freeport idea is an on-shore "special economic zone ….encompassing a wide variety of foreign trade zones, freeports, investment zones, industrial parks, export processing zones, enterprise zones, and even ‘charter cities’ …What all SEZs share is some form of derogation from the laws and regulations [including company and paye tax] of the country within which they are located."

      They haven't proved sucessful for the UK, so why we need them here, except for ideological reasons, I don't know. They have led to corruption, and are shown to suck investment away from other parts of a country.

      Yet another crap Tory import by the man who has zero ideas of his own.

      Reply
    • KJT 7.3
      15 March 2025 at 6:54 am

      More cargo cultism.

      Desperately floundering around to find ways of fixing their fuckups?

      Or simply looking to please their bribers?

      Or Trumpian/Trussian levels of Libertarian ideological lunacy?

      Or. All of the above?

      Reply
  8. roblogic 8
    14 March 2025 at 10:42 pm

    With a government pipeline of big infrastructure projects and industry lining up to build ferries, hospitals, housing, and public utilities

    NZ *was* a great place to do business

    UNDER LABOUR

    When will voters get that through their skulls

    But all I see on social media is fwits attacking Jacinda and Chippy for spending money

    Too thick to understand that's how to run a country

    Reply
    • tc 8.1
      15 March 2025 at 7:15 am

      Very true that, we were a great place for business till the coalition showed with ferries and 3 waters it's not about doing what NZ requires to get done.

      More stable countries that don't cancel contracts for them to get a return in currently.

      Countries whose workforces aren't fleeing the class war that is well underway.

      Reply
  9. joe 9
    15 March 2025 at 10:59 am

    The Government of Big Fails.

    Invest here today.

    Loose it all tomorrow.

    C'mon overseas suckers, climb on board

    this rollercoaster to failure and collapse.

    You'll enjoy the ride.

    Insert TUI ad here.

    Reply
    • roblogic 9.1
      15 March 2025 at 11:02 am

      The only investors left are oligarchs and billionaire criminals buying NZ citizenship for some pocket change of $10 mill NZD

      Reply
  10. Psycho Milt 10
    15 March 2025 at 11:07 am

    The only major infrastructure projects overseas investors could rely on this govt to actually carry out would be highways, but the example of Transmission Gully would turn up in even the vaguest attempt at due diligence, so yeah, it's hard to see why any of them would want to invest.

    Reply
  11. Heathrr [please correct typo in user handle] 11
    15 March 2025 at 11:11 am

    Luxon was so excited almost orgasmic about welcoming home Chris Lindell who was looking for a home since he left or was he fired from the oval office.

    Wonder what the overseas investors thought about a country who feeds the poorest school children frozen bread rolls for their school lunch. Italian and French schools make school lunch a learning experience.

    Reply
  12. Tony Veitch 12
    15 March 2025 at 11:14 am

    Ad, I beg to differ – I don't think this conference a 'fail.'

    Not quite yet.

    The underlying purpose of the conference was not to sell NZ as a great place to invest in, but to sell Christopher Luxon as a potential high paid executive of an overseas hedge fund or multinational corporation when the inevitable happens, and he's rolled (sorry, he leaves parliament to spend more time with his family).

    The success or failure of the conference will be measured when Christopher decides that ***** has made an offer too good to resist.

    Reply
    • thinker 12.1
      15 March 2025 at 12:31 pm

      You may be right in what you say, but from what I saw and heard, there was a bit of a surprise that these guys had so little preparation in place.

      Obviously, with many millions at stake, they aren't going to throw their toys out of the cot at the government, but they said what they thought, for those who know how to listen.

      Reply

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