May 5, 2026 • 5 mins
The PM, hot off signing the ‘Fuel for Food’ deal with Singapore, also ponders local body reform and the prospect of a Grand Coalition.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wednesdays on the Country, the Prime Minister kicks off the show.
We do appreciate us time. An actual fact, Deputy Dave
Seymour was going to do the slot today but the
Boss came back from Singapore and demanded the airtime. Well
not quite, Christopher Luxem but we do. We do appreciate
you coming on the show. Well done signing the or
seiling should I say, the fuel for food deal in Singapore.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, look we feth We're going to be with you, Jamie.
Just step off the plane. And really it's been a
really successful visit on several levels. One was Singapore is
our most important country in Southeast Asia, our partner. Really
we are our fourth biggest trading partner that we've got.
But also Singapore is the gateway into Southeast Asia big time.
We've built a good relationship at a top, top level
(00:44):
with the Prime Minister and when he was here last October,
we upgraded what's called the highest level of strategic partnership
that you can get. And as part of that, it
was inventing this new idea that in a crisis, we
would provide them with food and they would provide us
with fuel them. You know, here we are this month,
flavor actually desperately needing that. So it's a world first.
No one else has an arrangement quite like that, and
(01:07):
we're really proud of it. So and it was also
good to be honest, Jomi, to get up there and
I met with a lot of the executives from all
the leading fuel companies in the world, and I wanted
to understand that you know, we've have historically got a
lot of crude all out of the Middle East. It
comes into Singapore or South Korea, it gets refined into
easel and aviation, GASP and petrol and then sent down
(01:27):
to New Zealand. And actually what's happened as those executives
and those companies have been very good at finding alternative
sources of feedstock of crude from places like the US,
even perue chla Oman, West Africa, places like that, which
has been good. So we have supply, and that's the
main thing. That's the main thing that we have to
start to make sure that we always have.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Just one or two to finish on if we have time.
Chris Bishop, in your absence, announced a long overdue reform
of a local body politics. If you want, we've got
far too many councils. Some of them are way too small,
they don't have any economy a scale. This is long
over due. What's the general feedback that you're getting from
(02:08):
said local bodies.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, look, there's two thoughts going on here. Are first
is we want to radically simplified RMA and we think
that actually we can get forty six percent less resource
consents are needed going forward once that becomes law, probably
around August sometime this year, which is fantastic. But in
a companying piece of that as you can't have I
think we've got something like seventy eight regional district councils
(02:33):
across the country. It's just way too many, way too
much complexity. If you want to go build a supermarket,
the rules are different in different parts of the country.
You know, it's just absolute craziness. And so what we
said in November last year is we want to knock
on the head the regional councils, take them out of
the picture completely. But what's happened since we announced that
in November. We've got a new RMA which we did
(02:53):
our first reading on before Christmas. We've got a new
proposal to get rid of regional councils. Is that many
of the district councils have come to get with their
neighbors and said, hey, listen, rather than waiting for your
process to work through, actually a few of us actually
would like to move a bit quicker and actually think
about how we might organize local government in our subregion
of New Zealand in a different and a better way.
(03:15):
Meaning and as long as they get rid of regional councils,
as long as they become unitary I meaning they can
do the tasks of district and regional councils. You know,
we're open for a three month period to actually hear
their proposals, to see how they can organize and so
you know, it makes sense. You know, we've got some
very small councils of maybe only five thousand people and
their neighbors got another seven thousand people. And actually if
(03:37):
they can work together, they might attract better people and
better management. And so yeah, we're going to give them
a window of time sort of see how they go
and see where they can get the proposal. But what
we're looking for is that everything has to be a
simpler system. They have to get rid of waste, they
have to get rid of the duplication and actually be
deliver the services that you must get rather than nice
to get.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, maybe just a final passing thought from me, we
could duplicate that at national level, you know, get rid
of some political parties. Just have a grand coalition. Grumpy
old Wayne Brown, the mayor of the super city, suggested
a grand coalition you and Shippy. You'd go all right,
wouldn't you.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, I just think you've got a Labor government that
caused the hell of a mess alongside New Zealand. First
support of them, but I mean that's what led to
a lot of economic pain, and I think you just
under our doing, Chris Hipkins. They're the people that tax more,
spent more, borrow more, and really put a huge pressure
on their country's finances. So I can reassure you this
at the beginning of the year. Look, I'm not going
to work with Labor to party Party or the Greens,
(04:36):
but you know I'm very comfortable and have proven that
I can work with both.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
In the z oln Fest, although you are putting the
boot into Winston a bit more than in the past.
I noticed you had a sly we dig there.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
No like I just say to you. Look, you know
we actually at the end of the day have government
government with delivered stable government. You know, a lot of
people even I think, I don't think. I'm sure you
weren't the case, Jammy. But when we formed a three
party coalition, people didn't think it would last ten months.
And it's actually been very, very sick scessful. It's been
very stable because we've found the common ground where we've
got seventy five percent alignment yep, we've got twenty five
(05:06):
percent disagreement or so, and where we do we raise
those and we dissevere, but we collaborate and cooperate as
much as possible where we can.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Well, you're not doing bad for a dog with three tails.
Thanks for your time. Straight off the plane. Sorry about
that from Singapore. Well done over there, and I hope
Todd McLay reintroduces himself to his family. He's doing some
sterling work for us. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
He's doing a great job. We've been and we're very proud.
I mean, we've put a lot of effort into international
relationships and in a crisis that we're experiencing, this is
where it pays off. So I know we've doing some
pretty cool things awesome. Jamie, you have a good week.
Wednesdays on the Country, the Prime Minister kicks off the show.
We do appreciate us time. An actual fact, Deputy Dave
Seymour was going to do the slot today but the
Boss came back from Singapore and demanded the airtime. Well
not quite, Christopher Luxem but we do. We do appreciate
you coming on the show. Well done signing the or
seiling should I say, the fuel for food deal in Singapore.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, look we feth We're going to be with you, Jamie.
Just step off the plane. And really it's been a
really successful visit on several levels. One was Singapore is
our most important country in Southeast Asia, our partner. Really
we are our fourth biggest trading partner that we've got.
But also Singapore is the gateway into Southeast Asia big time.
We've built a good relationship at a top, top level
(00:44):
with the Prime Minister and when he was here last October,
we upgraded what's called the highest level of strategic partnership
that you can get. And as part of that, it
was inventing this new idea that in a crisis, we
would provide them with food and they would provide us
with fuel them. You know, here we are this month,
flavor actually desperately needing that. So it's a world first.
No one else has an arrangement quite like that, and
(01:07):
we're really proud of it. So and it was also
good to be honest, Jomi, to get up there and
I met with a lot of the executives from all
the leading fuel companies in the world, and I wanted
to understand that you know, we've have historically got a
lot of crude all out of the Middle East. It
comes into Singapore or South Korea, it gets refined into
easel and aviation, GASP and petrol and then sent down
(01:27):
to New Zealand. And actually what's happened as those executives
and those companies have been very good at finding alternative
sources of feedstock of crude from places like the US,
even perue chla Oman, West Africa, places like that, which
has been good. So we have supply, and that's the
main thing. That's the main thing that we have to
start to make sure that we always have.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Just one or two to finish on if we have time.
Chris Bishop, in your absence, announced a long overdue reform
of a local body politics. If you want, we've got
far too many councils. Some of them are way too small,
they don't have any economy a scale. This is long
over due. What's the general feedback that you're getting from
(02:08):
said local bodies.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, look, there's two thoughts going on here. Are first
is we want to radically simplified RMA and we think
that actually we can get forty six percent less resource
consents are needed going forward once that becomes law, probably
around August sometime this year, which is fantastic. But in
a companying piece of that as you can't have I
think we've got something like seventy eight regional district councils
(02:33):
across the country. It's just way too many, way too
much complexity. If you want to go build a supermarket,
the rules are different in different parts of the country.
You know, it's just absolute craziness. And so what we
said in November last year is we want to knock
on the head the regional councils, take them out of
the picture completely. But what's happened since we announced that
in November. We've got a new RMA which we did
(02:53):
our first reading on before Christmas. We've got a new
proposal to get rid of regional councils. Is that many
of the district councils have come to get with their
neighbors and said, hey, listen, rather than waiting for your
process to work through, actually a few of us actually
would like to move a bit quicker and actually think
about how we might organize local government in our subregion
of New Zealand in a different and a better way.
(03:15):
Meaning and as long as they get rid of regional councils,
as long as they become unitary I meaning they can
do the tasks of district and regional councils. You know,
we're open for a three month period to actually hear
their proposals, to see how they can organize and so
you know, it makes sense. You know, we've got some
very small councils of maybe only five thousand people and
their neighbors got another seven thousand people. And actually if
(03:37):
they can work together, they might attract better people and
better management. And so yeah, we're going to give them
a window of time sort of see how they go
and see where they can get the proposal. But what
we're looking for is that everything has to be a
simpler system. They have to get rid of waste, they
have to get rid of the duplication and actually be
deliver the services that you must get rather than nice
to get.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, maybe just a final passing thought from me, we
could duplicate that at national level, you know, get rid
of some political parties. Just have a grand coalition. Grumpy
old Wayne Brown, the mayor of the super city, suggested
a grand coalition you and Shippy. You'd go all right,
wouldn't you.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Well, I just think you've got a Labor government that
caused the hell of a mess alongside New Zealand. First
support of them, but I mean that's what led to
a lot of economic pain, and I think you just
under our doing, Chris Hipkins. They're the people that tax more,
spent more, borrow more, and really put a huge pressure
on their country's finances. So I can reassure you this
at the beginning of the year. Look, I'm not going
to work with Labor to party Party or the Greens,
(04:36):
but you know I'm very comfortable and have proven that
I can work with both.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
In the z oln Fest, although you are putting the
boot into Winston a bit more than in the past.
I noticed you had a sly we dig there.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
No like I just say to you. Look, you know
we actually at the end of the day have government
government with delivered stable government. You know, a lot of
people even I think, I don't think. I'm sure you
weren't the case, Jammy. But when we formed a three
party coalition, people didn't think it would last ten months.
And it's actually been very, very sick scessful. It's been
very stable because we've found the common ground where we've
got seventy five percent alignment yep, we've got twenty five
(05:06):
percent disagreement or so, and where we do we raise
those and we dissevere, but we collaborate and cooperate as
much as possible where we can.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Well, you're not doing bad for a dog with three tails.
Thanks for your time. Straight off the plane. Sorry about
that from Singapore. Well done over there, and I hope
Todd McLay reintroduces himself to his family. He's doing some
sterling work for us. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
He's doing a great job. We've been and we're very proud.
I mean, we've put a lot of effort into international
relationships and in a crisis that we're experiencing, this is
where it pays off. So I know we've doing some
pretty cool things awesome. Jamie, you have a good week.
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