Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is required to act in accordance with the operating principles for investment decisions as set out in the Land Transport Management Act 2003.
In addition to these statutory investment principles, Waka Kotahi has adopted further investment principles arising out of the Investment Decision-making Framework review. From August 2020, Waka Kotahi is applying the following investment principles to guide the development and update of investment policies, and their interpretation. Investment principles provide an overarching direction for our investment decisions.
We invest to deliver key land transport outcomes and Government Policy Statement on Land Transport priorities. We encourage activities and packages of solutions that are deliberately designed to deliver multiple outcomes, including contributing to wider government priorities and wellbeing where transport has a role to play.
To ensure the most effective and efficient solutions are implemented, we require an appropriate assessment of options and the application of our intervention hierarchy. When assessing ‘value’, we consider social, environmental, safety, cultural and economic impacts, whole-of-life costs and benefits. We ensure an equitable sharing of costs to reflect both public and private benefits.
We ensure intergenerational impacts and land-use integration opportunities are considered, so that immediate decisions support long-term system outcomes. Recognising future uncertainty, activities should also be able to adapt to changing technology and be resilient to unexpected events.
We work together with local government and other investment partners and agencies to undertake planning work, seek aligned priorities and coordinate activities. Māori, stakeholder and community engagement informs decision-making and helps tailor solutions to local conditions.
We are open, clear and impartial when making investment decisions. We use timely, agile, right-sized and fit-for-purpose processes that are easy to understand and scaled to the appropriate level of risk. We will continue to improve future investment decision-making through the ongoing evaluation of results to ensure evidence remains robust.
