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  "description": "10 News Stories They Chose Not to Tell You",
  "path": "/your-daily-ten-10-2026-028/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-18T21:00:43.000Z",
  "site": "https://goodoil.news",
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  "textContent": "**This is edition 2026/028 of the _Ten@10_ newsletter.**\n\nHi all,\n\nThis is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.\n\nEnjoy!\n\n* * *\n\n## The Infrastructure plan that exposes “Broken New Zealand”\n\nBryce Edwards\n\n  * 🌧️ As New Zealand faced fresh storm damage, the Infrastructure Commission released its first National Infrastructure Plan, bluntly admitting the system is failing under natural hazards and poor governance.\n  * 📉 Despite spending 5.8% of GDP (over $20b annually) on infrastructure — among the highest in the OECD — New Zealand ranks near the bottom for efficiency and asset management.\n  * 💸 Of nearly 12,000 planned projects worth $275b, $193b is unfunded, revealing not a spending shortage but a value-for-money and political decision-making crisis.\n  * 🏗️ The plan criticises decades of political mismanagement: obsession with mega-projects, neglect of maintenance, and constant policy reversals driven by electoral politics.\n  * 🛣️ The costly expansion of the Roads of National Significance programme is flagged as unaffordable, highlighting tensions between political promises and fiscal reality.\n  * 🔧 A major philosophical shift is proposed: 60% of capital spending over 30 years should go to maintenance and renewals rather than new builds, especially for ageing hospitals, water systems, and roads.\n  * 🏥 Health infrastructure requires the largest boost, with hospital investment needing to double as a share of GDP and Auckland projected to need 1,100 extra beds by 2050.\n  * 🚦 The plan questions building roads for peak demand and suggests congestion pricing and better sequencing of projects instead of “dreaming big” and cancelling later.\n  * 💰 Greater reliance on user-pays funding (tolls, congestion charges, higher electricity and water costs) could disproportionately impact lower-income households.\n  * 🤝 Expanded use of public-private partnerships and KiwiSaver investment in infrastructure raises concerns about risk transfer to workers and past failures like Transmission Gully.\n  * 🏛️ Proposed structural reforms would shift more power to technocrats and regulators, potentially reducing democratic oversight in a small, tightly networked political system.\n  * 🏢 Infrastructure lobby groups quickly shaped the narrative, advocating more spending and private capital while operating with limited transparency in a country lacking a lobbying register.\n  * 🔄 The article argues infrastructure mirrors a broader “Broken NZ” pattern: concentrated economic power, revolving doors between industry and government, and politicians shielding incumbents.\n  * ⚖️ Ultimately, the crisis is political rather than technical — the plan’s impact depends on whether politicians confront vested interests, level with voters about affordability, and design fair reforms.\n\n\n\nRead More\n\n### This post is for subscribers only\n\nBecome a member to get access to all content\n\nSubscribe now",
  "title": "Your Daily Ten@10 - 2026/028",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-18T21:00:43.000Z"
}