Chris Bishop: Infrastructure Minister on the deals with cities and regions

A clear message from the Government: New Zealand can't succeed if Auckland doesn't succeed. 

The Government's agreed to negotiate with Auckland Council on a 10-year deal to boost housing, infrastructure, and economic growth in our largest city. 

It's also agreed to negotiate similar deals with Western Bay of Plenty and Central Otago. 

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking the deal will align local and central government on up-zoning, rapid transit, and innovation precincts. 

He says Auckland is New Zealand's main international city and is a big driver of economic growth around the country. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We alluded to it Monday with the Prime Minister. But
your regional deal winners are Auckland to target in the
Western Bay. Are plenty partnerships. This is between central and
local government to turbo charge of the economy. So how
does it work? Chris Bishop, Infrastructure, Minister of Courses back
with us on the program morning, Good morning. How many
applications did you get?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Eighteen? We received eighteen light touch proposals. They were sort
of indicative proposals from around the country. Not everyone wanted
to participate, so Wellington, for example, as was reported, didn't
submit one.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Okay, So are these standouts or were they all good
and you could have done business with all of them potentially?

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I mean, ultimately they're all They're all good in their
own ways.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
These were the three that best met the alignment with
the government around our kind of shared vision for closing
that infrastructure gap and you know, delivering productivity enhartcing infrastructure
for the future, around spatial planning and things like that.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
So these are the kind of the ones that stood out.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
And look, you know, frankly, from a realistic point of view,
we need Auckland to succeed right for the country. You know,
and appreciate the people out there listening and not from Auckland.
And we'll say, well, yeah, yeah, Auckland or Auckland, but
Auckland's our biggest city, it's our big international city. It's
a major driver of growth and productivity in the country.
And so aligning central government direction with Auckland, with Mayor

(01:17):
Wayne Brown and the council around housing, around you know,
when I've been on the show talking about rapid transit
and the city railak and you know, up zoning land
or for housing. He's very keen on innovation precincts being
based there. There's a lot we can do there in Auckland.
So I'm really excited.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
But how does it Dubtor? Is this a power grab
by you guys? Because I look back to the christ
You scrap your head and they pleaded with you for
years and spent millions and wasted their time and you said, no,
thank you. How much of this is about you doing
what you want versus them doing what they want?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I think it's the better way to put it. I
reckon is about alignment. So we've said some of course
adjectives for us, Well, we've set some clear objectives for
us right, which is that we've got a clear agenda
around resource management reform, actually quite supported by local councils
to be honest, because everyone knows the status quo is unsustainable.
So resource management reform, we've got the three waters changes
we're making around local water done well. We want councils

(02:09):
to use new tools for funding and financing, so things
like infrastructure funding and financing levies off balance sheet borrowing.
We're also quite keen that they engage some asset recycling
from their own assets. Often local councils have assets on
their balance sheet that frankly our viewers could be redeployed
to better uses. So part of the regional deal frame
work will be discussions around that.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
And you've seen Wayne brownder that in.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Auckland for example, selling down the the state in Auckland.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
The airport and a bit controversial for a while, but
actually it's.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Been will there be crunchy as stuff because I'm reading
yesterday it sounds like lux and wrote the thing it's
all it's all. I mean, it's all fields and touches
and we want a bit of this and a bit
of that, and has been and it's going to be fantastic.
Is there something crunchy coming that we can get our
heads around numbers, data, time frames?

Speaker 3 (02:51):
KPIs, well, yeah, that's all to come.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
So I think it will get crunchy once we work,
you know, with the rubber hits the road on what
councils are up for doing. And as I say, we're
nonsmess recycling on improving their you know, their investment in
local infrastructure that supports growth, because that's ultimately what this
is all about. So we're coming at it from central
government around growth and that's this government's driving ambition, as

(03:13):
you know, is how do we improve productivity and get
growth going. So there is some of the proposals that
that came in and they were all pretty good up
their own way. But some of them came in and
they were they were to usual language, but touchy feely,
sort of like, oh, let's all sit down and comboy
are and have a you know, have a have a
whoey and all the rest of it.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
We don't want any Well, well.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
We're up for meetings. We're up for meetings as long
as they lead to productive outcomes. And I'm not a
guy who sits around and you know, I don't go
into meetings to share spiders. We're there to actually get
stuff done for the country, right.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Good stuff, And you don't want to be in a
meeting shagging spiders.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Quote of the day, that's right.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
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