The Pulse Part of The Voice
An industry waiting on the election.
And asking for a plan that outlasts it.
A survey from
300 leaders from across New Zealand’s infrastructure sector answered our industry survey: consultants, contractors, councils, asset owners and more. Here’s what they told us.
Responses300
“Election years always create a pause in the delivery of contracts.”
91%
Industry survey, July 2026, and follow-up · Q16 · 211 responses
91%
Industry survey, July 2026, and follow-up · Q17 · 211 responses
A quarter of the 146 people who explained their outlook for the industry pointed to the election or a change of government, and most of them expect work to freeze until early 2027, whoever wins.
Treading water.
5.4/10
That’s the sector’s confidence in the business environment for the next 12 months, where 0 is none and 10 is complete. A third scored it 4 or lower. Look three years out and it climbs to 5.9, with 44% at 7 or more. Every question that asked about both horizons came out brighter over three years than one: the sector expects the work, it just can’t see it yet.
Industry survey, July 2026 · Q4, 226 responses · Q5, 227 responses
Show the numbers
| Horizon | Low, 0–4 | Middling, 5–6 | Confident, 7–10 | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Next 12 months | 32% | 37% | 31% | 5.4 |
| Next 3 years | 22% | 34% | 44% | 5.9 |
51%
expect the next 12 months to be harder financially than the last. Only 7% expect it to be easier.
Industry survey, July 2026, and follow-up · Q13 · 211 responses
“Companies working on no or negative margins just to try to hold staff members.”
“I have been working in the infrastructure industry in the same business for 53 years and I’ve never been so short of work.”
When the work stops, people leave.
47 in every 100
Industry survey, July 2026, and follow-up · Q9 · about 210 responses
49%
expect the risk of losing staff overseas to rise over the next 12 months. 7% expect it to fall.
Q10 · about 200 responses
42%
of organisations cut staff numbers in the last 12 months, against 27% that grew.
Q11 · about 210 responses
“Get projects to market and plenty of them or we will lose key staff overseas.”
The written answers tie it straight to the pipeline. With no project to keep them, people leave for Australia, and firms doubt they’ll get them back. It’s the other side of certainty: when leaders can see the work coming, they keep their teams together.
Delay makes it worse.
Could New Zealand deliver if investment picked up in the next 12 months? 56% say the country is ill-prepared, short of the people, skills and equipment it would need. Let that uplift slip by one to three years and the figure rises to 66%, while the share saying highly ill-prepared more than doubles, from 12% to 30%.
Industry survey, July 2026 · Q21–Q22 · 187 responses
Show the numbers
| If the uplift… | Highly prepared | Somewhat prepared | Neutral | Somewhat ill-prepared | Highly ill-prepared |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| comes in the next 12 months | 5% | 25% | 14% | 44% | 12% |
| is delayed 12 to 36 months | 1%* | 19% | 14% | 36% | 30% |
*Not labelled in the source chart; it is the remainder after rounding.
Stop-start politics has cost New Zealand $11.8 billion in paused, cancelled and delayed projects. The survey shows the part that’s harder to price: the people and know-how that leave while the work waits.
Pipeline first. Cashflow last.
We asked people to rank ten concerns. A lack of work in the pipeline over the next 12 months came out on top, and a third of those who ranked it put it first. Keeping skilled staff came second, with the longer-term pipeline and political uncertainty close behind. Cashflow, now or in the year ahead, sat near the bottom.
- 1Lack of pipeline of work in 12 months7.51
- 2Ability to retain skilled staff6.67
- 3Lack of pipeline of work in 3 years and beyond6.62
- 4Political or policy uncertainty6.57
- 5Rising costs, inflation pressures5.97
- 6Ability to recruit skilled staff5.80
- 7Weakening demand for services5.03
- 8Cashflow issues emerging in the next 12 months4.15
- 9Preparedness for emergency or climate-related events3.96
- 10Current cashflow issues3.65
Industry survey, July 2026 · Q19 · 182 responses, 169 to 180 ranking each item
Show the numbers
| Concern | Score | Ranked first |
|---|---|---|
| Lack of pipeline of work in 12 months | 7.51 | 32% |
| Ability to retain skilled staff | 6.67 | 12% |
| Lack of pipeline of work in 3 years and beyond | 6.62 | 9% |
| Political or policy uncertainty | 6.57 | 17% |
| Rising costs, inflation pressures | 5.97 | 12% |
| Ability to recruit skilled staff | 5.80 | 5% |
| Weakening demand for services | 5.03 | 9% |
| Cashflow issues emerging in the next 12 months | 4.15 | 2% |
| Preparedness for emergency or climate-related events | 3.96 | 3% |
| Current cashflow issues | 3.65 | 3% |
Scores are the survey platform’s rank-weighted averages. “Ranked first” is the share of those who ranked an item who put it at number one.
Three of the top four are about whether the work will come, and when. That’s the problem stop-start politics creates, and the one a long-term plan is built to fix.
On one question, the sector agrees.
93%
say cross-party agreement on major infrastructure priorities is extremely or very important. 77% chose extremely.
Industry survey, July 2026, and follow-up · Q18 · 211 responses
No question in the survey drew more agreement. We also asked for a message to the Government and the Opposition, and 147 people wrote one. The most common theme, in 42% of them, was certainty: a pipeline that holds, without the stop-start. More than one in four (28%) asked the parties to agree, or to take the decisions out of politics.
“Stop flip flopping on priorities. Debate it once and then let us get on with building.”
“Commit to a funded 5-year pipeline of infrastructure projects. The industry needs certainty, not announcements.”
“We’re not building infrastructure assets. We’re building an industry.”
“50 major projects are better than 1 mega project.”
Build for generations, not elections. The people who build New Zealand are asking for the same thing.
What they asked for.
Four asks keep coming back.
-
A funded, multi-year pipeline that survives a change of government
Five funded years inside a 10 to 30 year plan, multi-year funding instead of annual budgets, protection for projects already under way, and independent prioritisation on need and value.
42%of messages asked for pipeline certainty
In the planA 12-year building plan
-
Fix how government buys
Faster decisions, standard requirements, whole-of-life value over lowest price, earlier talks with industry, and work spread wider than the same few big firms.
20%raised procurement
In the planA system that delivers
-
Fund the basics, including what we already own
Honesty about what’s affordable, a wider set of funding tools from user-pays to KiwiSaver capital, maintenance protected, and councils funded for the infrastructure they deliver.
25%raised funding
In the planLook after what we haveA Growth Infrastructure FundEmpower cities and regions
-
Keep the people
Get projects to market now so firms can hold their staff, back training and apprenticeships, and keep entry-level roles here.
14%raised skills and retention
In the planA 12-year building plan
Industry survey, July 2026 · Q23, messages to the Government and the Opposition · 147 responses. Themes counted by keyword, and one message can raise several, so read the shares as a floor.
So this election, every promise goes on the record.
Publishes 23 October
Every party. Eight tests.
The same survey went to every party on 11 September. The scorecard shows what each has committed to build, three days before advance voting opens.
In Focus
The people who build New Zealand, in their own words.
This campaign doesn’t tell you who to vote for. It puts the evidence where everyone can see it.
How the survey worked
Infrastructure New Zealand’s industry survey opened on 8 July 2026. It had 2,199 visits and 290 responses, 180 of them complete and 110 partial, across 25 questions on confidence, workload, workforce, government investment and what the sector wants said on its behalf.
A shorter follow-up survey, opened in late September, repeated ten of those questions and added 10 complete responses, for 300 in all. Its answers are counted in the charts on the election, finances, staff and cross-party agreement. The confidence chart and who answered use July’s answers only: the follow-up rated confidence on a 0 to 100 slider, averaging 5.6 and 5.9 out of 10, in line with July, and asked about organisation type in free text.
Every percentage is a share of the people who answered that question, so each chart shows its own number of responses. Answers thin out as the survey goes on, to 131 by the last question. The sample is self-selected from Infrastructure New Zealand’s audience and isn’t weighted; consultants and large organisations make up much of it, and asset owners, funders and central government are fewer.
Themes in the written answers were counted by keyword, and one answer can raise several, so treat those shares as a floor. Quotes are as written, apart from minor spelling.
Source: Industry Survey, Infrastructure New Zealand, opened 8 July 2026. Summary report read and analysed 3 September 2026. Follow-up survey, Infrastructure New Zealand, opened 24 September 2026, 10 responses.
- Consultancy, professional services or engineering47%
- Contractor or constructor17%
- Local government13%
- Asset owner6%
- Central government4%
- Utility provider4%
- Project manager4%
- Supplier, financial institution or facilities manager4%
- 1,001 or more staff44%
- 301 to 1,00019%
- 101 to 30014%
- 51 to 1008%
- 21 to 506%
- 2 to 205%
- Just me4%