What is the recommended ratio of infrastructure spending on maintenance versus new builds?
According to New Zealand's Infrastructure Commission, Te Wahananga, for every dollar spent on infrastructure, 60 cents must go toward maintenance and renewals — leaving only 40 cents available for new construction. This ratio holds as a large-scale average, though it varies for individual assets.
The practical implication of the 60/40 rule is stark: more than half of all infrastructure spending should, by default, be directed at keeping existing assets functional. Yet New Zealand has consistently done the opposite. Politicians across successive governments have favoured visible new builds over less glamorous maintenance programmes, and this chronic underinvestment is identified as a primary driver of the country's deteriorating infrastructure. The health sector offers a concrete illustration: annual maintenance spending there runs well below 2% of asset value, compared to an international benchmark closer to 5% per year. A large share of New Zealand's current asset base was built during the post-World War II boom of the 1950s and 1960s — infrastructure designed with a lifecycle of around 50 years that has never been systematically replaced.
The National Infrastructure Plan released in 2025 adds further weight to the picture: 12 out of 31 central government agencies do not even maintain a basic asset register, making disciplined maintenance planning structurally impossible. You can listen to the full episode on Listenly to hear Murray Pugh explain how this political cycle of deferral compounds over time, eventually shifting an unfair burden onto future generations.
"Unless we invest now, and maybe forego something else, then our children and our grandchildren are going to shoulder a very highly disproportional impact from failing infrastructure."
— Murray Pugh, CEO, ApopoAbout Murray Pugh
Murray Pugh leads Apopo, the professional association that sits at the centre of Aotearoa New Zealand's infrastructure asset management community. With a membership of 1,300 practitioners, Apopo represents the people directly accountable for ensuring that roads, water systems, buildings, and other public assets deliver the services communities depend on.
Under Pugh's leadership, Apopo established the Asset Management Chartered Professional designation — a formal accreditation pathway that has since been recognised by the World Partners in Asset Management as equivalent to their global certification scheme. This international recognition places New Zealand's asset management profession on the same footing as counterparts in countries with far more mature infrastructure governance cultures.
Pugh's authority on the maintenance-versus-new-build debate is grounded in direct practitioner evidence. An Apopo survey of 50 senior practitioners found that 70% ranked governance as the highest priority for improving asset management in New Zealand — a finding that reinforces his argument that the problem is not technical knowledge, but political will and institutional accountability.