Infrastructure groups warn skills lost overseas will raise project costs

Infrastructure industry groups fear New Zealand won’t have the knowledge and skills required to build major infrastructure projects if specialist workers keep moving overseas.

Data from the Association of Consulting Engineers found almost 600 consulting engineers moved overseas in the two years to March.

About 1350 people were made redundant and about 490 left for other opportunities within New Zealand or an unknown location.

Association chief executive Helen Davidson said many business leaders were worried about the lack of a pipeline of work and the situation across the sector was probably a lot worse.

“To lose that many skilled professionals in such a short time is scary. We have roads of national significance to build. We have a second [Auckland] Harbour crossing to build. We know we need to address our water infrastructure.”

Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett put the actual number of skilled workers moving overseas in the thousands.

“The cost of getting those back will be baked into the next project, and they will be more expensive because we haven’t got the projects lined up.”

Leggett said out of all developed countries, New Zealand got the second least value out of its infrastructure spend.

“Kiwis would get better bang for their buck if we were able to plan and appropriate the money for the right project at the right time. If we were able to do that, we would solve some of those problems.”

Leggett said currently, money was attached to only a small proportion of projects in the National Infrastructure Plan.

“It’s a double waste if we let those [skills] go overseas and then have to bring them back because we’ve paid to build those skills, we want to keep them in the country and deploy them on the next project.”

He said it’s a problem we’ve already faced during the construction of recent mega projects.

The City Rail Link hired 2000 contractors at its peak between 2023 and 2024, when work to excavate the tunnels, construct stations and connect the lines took place concurrently.

“The CRL workforce was fluid throughout the life of the project,” project chief executive Patrick Brockie said, with many specialist workers having moved on to other projects, usually overseas, once their work was completed.

Watercare’s Central Interceptor project in Auckland, the country’s largest wastewater project, involved almost 1050 contractors through Ghella Abergeldie Joint Venture.

Of those, about 800 were locals and about 250 were from overseas, with many of those becoming permanent residents or citizens during or after work completed.

Engineering New Zealand chief executive Richard Templer said he was worried about what would happen to future graduate engineers if the country kept losing people at their “most valuable to overseas recruiters”.

“We will struggle to have people who can give them the training, the oversight, and the mentoring they will need. This is going to make life challenging for firms and it’s going to make life challenging for our society when we need these engineering projects done.”

Templer said there was a common misconception with the cost of big infrastructure projects.
“People don’t realise the cheapest time is now. They will always become more expensive in the future, so if we delay a project for five years, it will cost significantly more.”

Both Infrastructure New Zealand and the Association of Consulting Engineers said they were watching this election closely.

Leggett said it was a good sign to see no massive project promises so far.

“There isn’t a centre-right or a centre-left way to do infrastructure. There is a good way and a bad way, and this election has to be about getting better at that and getting political parties to realise.”

Davidson said there was nervousness to see what promises were translated into action and the sector couldn’t afford another round of stop-start politics.

“We need to see long-term, evidence-based infrastructure planning that’s aligned to a shared vision for New Zealand and that lasts beyond election cycles.”

Marcus Allan is an Auckland-based Multimedia Journalist at Newstalk ZB, with an interest in social issues, politics, and entertainment. He has freshly completed his Bachelor of Broadcasting Communications, majoring in journalism.