Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on Prime Minister Chris Luxon's infrastructure-focused meeting in Australia

Infrastructure is high on the agenda for the Prime Minister's meetings in Australia.

Chris Luxon and Ministers Shane Jones, Simeon Brown and Chris Bishop have met with top-brass at Kiwi engineering firm Beca, and had infrastructure talks with the New South Wales Premier.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper unpacks Luxon's new model for infrastructure.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barris Oper, senior political corresponds with us Barry Hello, good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Heather Rymus has had something to say about these myth lollies. Well,
it's incredible, isn't it, this story that it's gone around
the world. Not surprisingly, he's in Sydney today ahead of
his meeting with Albanezi and Canberra tomorrow. But you'll be
pleased to hear and you probably already know anyway, the
police recovered sixteen of the lollies Yester, and a further

(00:25):
thirteen were discovered overnight in Auckland. Apparently each packet contained
about thirty lollies. So let's hope there's only one left
out there. Let's hope there's only one packet. But the
problem is who knows. And it is really a significant
problem for this country considering the strength of these lollies,
and they're obviously aimed at kids, and you imagine if

(00:49):
it was your child that inadvertently put one of these
in their mouths. But not surprising, the stories, like I said,
has made news around the world. Chris likes and says
he is deeply concerned about the danger it presents to
this country.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
I just want everyone in New Zealand say, this is
incredibly worrying concerning please please please check check check that
actually what you're feeding your children are safe and make
sure that you are aware of what these lollies are
and what they look like so that you can actually
remove them. I mean, it's incredibly worrying I think for
everybody watching that story, and we're worried about you know,

(01:24):
the police can do the vescatch fin it, how the
hell it actually happens. The bigger issue right now is
public safety and making sure everyone's well aware of it.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
You're clearly how the hell it happened was a drug
dealer was drawing to import the stuff into the country.
And I heard your drug expert on before saying that
it probably came from a Mexican cartel, which is apparently
a big player in getting methamphetamine around this part of
the world. Yeah, apparently. So what is the infrastructure that
they've been looking at over in Sydney. Well, the New

(01:53):
South Wales have been quite ahead of the ball game
when it comes to private public parser oartnerships and this
is what our ministers have based their fast track legislation
and the experts who will oversee this now traveling with
Chris Luckson. Was the Infrastructure or is the Infrastructure Minister

(02:16):
Chris Bishop, the Regional Development Minister of our old mate
Shane Jones, and the Transport Minister Sam and Brown. They
were all standing with Chris lux when he was talking
to the media today. Like I said, they've based their
plan on the Australian experience and in particular New South Wales.
Basically they're wanting cross party support for the big projects

(02:41):
after an expert panel decides what are the most important
to proceed with. He is Chris Bishop from Sydney.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
The purpose of the Infrastructure Priority List is to pull
out independently assessed, credible projects that the country needs over
the next five, ten, fifteen to twenty years. That idea
that we're developing in New Zealand has taken from Infrastructure
Australia and also infrastructure.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
In South Wales.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
We spend a bit of time talking about that with
them this morning and that also goes, I think to
the point around building a more bipartisan pipeline and projects.
If you have a independently verified list of projects that
infrastructure experts have said, this is what the country or
in this case the state needs. Then political parties can
then get behind those projects in government or in opposition.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, well, good luck for that. That's the problem I
think with infrastructure in this country that they announced very
big plans and I'm not just saying the National Party,
but certainly Labor did and we know that here in
Auckland announced the big plans and of course another government
comes along and changes them. So this would be certainly
a political change if the Labor Party got on board

(03:43):
with what these are doing. But look, there will be
announcements as I understand it, made within the next couple
of weeks about this expert panel that'll decide who gets
a priority when it comes to infrastructure being built in
this country. Do you see how popular the charter schools
are proving? Oh incredible, it really. Seventy eight applications have
come in to open the new charter schools and essentially

(04:09):
the brainchild or the pet project of the Associate Education
Minister David Seymour. Funding this year's budget only allows though,
for fifteen new schools and thirty five state call schools
to be maybe converted converted, which leaves twenty eight not
being funded through next year and the sponsored these schools,

(04:34):
so there will be a lot of disappointed people out there,
but they will be starting next year, which is quite extraordinary.
And you know a lot of people ask me what
is a charter school. Well, essentially, it's a school that
decides its own curriculum, but they have to keep up.
They have to keep up with other schools in the system,
so they're judged frequently on they have their own curriculum,

(04:57):
the hours and days of operation, and the government structure
is quite separate from the state. But look, it is
an interesting concept. There's still a couple going that Labour
didn't get their hands on when they were in government.
Are they the ones run by Willie Jackson. I'm not sure.
He doesn't know yah, so.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
That maybe because he Yeah, Labour hates them, but Willy
loves the turns out. Hey, thank you, Barry, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Very sober.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Senior political correspondent, News Talks.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Ab for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live
to News Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or
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