If an new infrastructure fund is set up for New Zealand it must be "depoliticised" and managed independently to the government for it to work, an investment expert says. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
A proposal to introduce a $100 billion infrastructure fund is getting the thumbs up from a major KiwiSaver provider.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters revealed his wishes for the "Future Fund" over the weekend, targeting multi-decade investment in infrastructure, ring-fenced to prevent political interference.
Simplicity managing director Sam Stubbs said the fund "fundamentally is a good idea".
Peters referenced the Republic of Ireland and Singapore as examples where similar funds were in place, and Stubbs believed they were good examples to follow.
Sam Stubbs Photo: Supplied / Simplicity
"Effectively, what they have done is they've taken a lot of their key infrastructure assets and rolled them into a big fund, and they've raised additional money to do more," Stubbs said.
"The really important thing about that is you have a completely separate layer of governance over that fund, which means it's effectively depoliticised," he said.
In particular, Stubbs highlighted Singaporean government-owned investment firm Temasek, which invested in equities and also outright owned key infrastructure, including Singapore's Changi Airport.
Stubbs said New Zealand could follow a similar model.
"It should be done here ... by really rolling in a combination of the existing assets we already have, and the example might be the power companies."
Stubbs said the fund could then raise money to invest in long-term infrastructure decisions.
He said for it to be successful, politicians would have to stay out of decision-making.
Stubbs added KiwiSaver fund managers, such as Simplicity, would be interested in partnering with a fund if the government chose to go down that path.
"We're also long-term investors, so we would be ideal investment partners for the Future Fund," he said.