Simon Court’s “biography” is blank on the Beehive website – but he has been busily buzzing about his PPP duties
Go googling for information about Simon Court, an ACT MP since 2020, and – among the first half dozen suggestions – you will find a steer to the government’s official website:
31 Jul 2024 — Simon Court · Contact · Portfolios · Biography · Ministerial diaries. Ministerial Diary – July 2024. 31 July 2024.
Click on the words “Simon Court”, and you will be taken to a page which features just one item:
Speech
29 August 2024
What an honour to be running the anchor leg of this incredible conference, and to be able to update you on some of the work I’ve had the privilege of doing across two of the best portfolios for a civil engineer – Infrastructure and RMA Reform.
Down the right-hand side of the page, beneath a picture of the MP, we learn:
Contact
Portfolios
Infrastructure – Parliamentary Under-Secretary
RMA Reform – Parliamentary Under-Secretary
Biography
Ministerial diaries
Ministerial Diary – July 2024
31 July 2024
The information provided is for general informational purposes only. While we try to keep the information up-to-date and correct, there are no guarantees, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy or reliability of this information. Full Disclaimer.
What do we learn if we respond to the invitation to read Court’s “Biography”?
Disappointingly, the answer is zilch. Not a word. Nothing.
Maybe it is still being written.
But the big thing is that Court has at last put runs on the board in the form of the speech, which can be found not only on the “Simon Court” page, but also here…
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Speech
29 August 2024
What an honour to be running the anchor leg of this incredible conference, and to be able to update you on some of the work I’ve had the privilege of doing across two of the best portfolios for a civil engineer – Infrastructure and RMA Reform.
The Building Nations conference – which provided Simon Court with his audience – was established in 2006, since when (according to its website) it has become New Zealand’s premier event for the infrastructure sector.
Each year around 700 of the country’s most influential public and private sector decision-makers gather to advance best practice in national infrastructure development. Delivering high-calibre speakers and workshop experiences that encourage delegates to see new ways to progress some of the complex challenges facing the sector, Building Nations facilitates new connections that help to advance projects and careers.
The speech told us more about Simon Court than his biography page on the Beehive website:
What an honour to be running the anchor leg of this incredible conference, and to be able to update you on some of the work I’ve had the privilege of doing across two of the best portfolios for a civil engineer – Infrastructure and RMA Reform.
Court said the conference had heard from his colleagues about much of the work the government is doing to address infrastructural issues.
We are working incredibly hard attacking multiple fronts, and I want to wrap this conference up by running through a some of the work I’m doing to get things moving faster.
Refreshing New Zealand’s public private partnership framework to better engage private enterprise is a critical part of this.
The Coalition government has signalled an appetite and intent for greater application of private sector capital, capability, and capacity to help deliver on our public infrastructure aspirations.
PPPs are a key tool in this, and, in the true spirit of PPPs, officials and I have been engaging with the private sector on how we can get to a flexible PPP framework that delivers the infrastructure New Zealand needs, sooner, while maximising value for money over the lifetime of an asset.
Court commended Infrastructure New Zealand for delivering “a great PPP paper that accommodates options for a range of project types”.
Many in the sector felt they had signed up to an undue level of risk on past PPP projects, he said.
We understand that frustration and recognise that in some cases it has not been in either the client’s or the contractors’ interest to set the performance and scope bar high, and the price low.
Nonetheless, we expect public sector agencies to maximise public and taxpayer value in how they manage those existing contracts. And we won’t be losing sight of this baseline requirement as we move into the next wave of PPPs.
New Zealand’s PPP Framework must recognise that contractual risk allocation incentivises proactive and effective risk management, but that there are some risks we may not be able to efficiently transfer, Court said.
Certain risks may be best retained by the client, if they can’t be accurately priced based on the information available when a contract is negotiated, or if they are critical to the client’s accountability for public service delivery.
However, strong performance incentives will always be a core feature of PPP procurement. Rather than defaulting to taking back risk, we first intend to place an increased emphasis on pre-procurement planning and collaboration to de-risk the project for all parties during the procurement process.
With reasonable time, cost, scope, and performance parameters agreed, all parties should be expected to be, and happy to be, held to account. This includes validation of the Affordability Threshold at key milestones to ensure it is sufficient to deliver the project outcomes.
PPPs could be complex and expensive to bid, Court acknowledged.
We are committed to measures that reduce the costs and time required through the procurement process, as well as providing clear guidance on the circumstances where a financial contribution to offset the costs of the procurement process might be expected.
In making bidding faster and cheaper, we do not want to dilute the engagement and feedback that occurs during the interactive tender process. In fact, we want to enrich the quality of these engagements so that they are not overly constrained by probity concerns and enable exchange of ideas and feedback that lead to the best possible solutions to our infrastructure problems.
Court said he expected final advice on the future New Zealand PPP Framework by the end of September and the government would be publishing its approach to future transactions later in the year.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
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