Former finance and infrastructure minister Steven Joyce has been appointed to chair an expert advisory panel to help “design and shape” a new National Infrastructure Agency.

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop made the announcement during a speech at the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Conference early this week.

“High-quality infrastructure connects our communities, drives economic growth, and supports the services we all rely on every day,” said Bishop.

“Infrastructure gets us from A to B whether it is by road, rail, sea or air.

“Infrastructure gets freight to and from other countries, linking us to the world and supporting prosperity through trade,” he said.

Bishop said the public sector infrastructure landscape was a crowded one, with overlapping roles and functions.

“Rather than rushing into establishing a new agency, I’ve commissioned a piece of work to fully understand what the Crown wants and needs from a high performing infrastructure system, who is doing what in the system currently, and what might need to change,” he said.

As well as Joyce, other panel members include former KiwiRail and Lyttelton Port Company director Fiona Mules, finance and capital markets expert Ross Pennington, construction, infrastructure and energy lawyer Sarah Sinclair and City Rail Link chief executive Sean Sweeney.

The group has been asked to help Treasury “understand what the Crown wants and needs from a high performing infrastructure system, who is doing what in the system currently, and what might need to change”, Bishop says.

The move has been welcomed by road freight industry members, with National Road Carriers saying it shows the Government is expecting the new agency to be a “high-performing delivery-focused entity”.

“NRC has called for a long-term plan and delivery model for infrastructure and is pleased to see the Government taking real steps towards putting that in place,” said CEO Justin Tighe-Umbers.

It is expected the National Infrastructure Agency will be up and running by 2025.