Good news for Northlanders - as the Government settles on the Northern Expressway option.
The new route will run from Warkworth, and be built over the Brynderwyn Hills east of the current route, then through Whangārei.
The road across the Brynderwyns has suffered continued closures, since 2023's severe weather.
NZ Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan says it's tipped to be a costly project - but a new road is needed.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political lediters of us Hey, Thomas Heather.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hello, when Labor goes.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Crying to Daddy and saying the Prime Minister needs to
come and sort out Winston. They do not for one
second believe the Prime Minister is going to sort out Winston?
Do they?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
No? I don't think so. In fact, I asked, I
asked Chris Hopkins about this today. Actually he had. He
made the point, Look, if the prime minister is that,
you know, as the prime minister, he should treat all
of his his ministers equally when they when they get
things wrong. Obviously that's that's good in theory. But the
allegations obviously that that Christopher Luxen doesn't treat the act
ministers and doesn't treat the New Zealand First ministers as
(00:35):
equally as he does his own National ministers. And Aceptkins said,
you know, look, we always, we basically always did that,
and he was actually referring to the time when he
was Prime minister when of course all the ministers barring
the Green Ones, were Labor ministers because they were a
majority government. And I seem to recall, you know, under
the under the air dourn years in that first term.
It wasn't always the case that the that the New
(00:57):
Zealand First Ministers were treated equally to the labor ministers.
You know, people like Clear Curran metaphytally had the book
thrown at them and and sometimes those New Zealand First ministers,
you know, there's those issues around around the regional flights
and Shane Jones having a bit of a cracket at
the chief executive of the New Zealand at the time.
Christopher Luxen And and and Ja Sinda gave gave the
(01:21):
New Zealand first minister's a pretty long leash back then,
as I recall, so I think there was a weaver
of hypocrisy here totally.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Have you heard the rumor that ran Z is going
to have its funding cut and the budget?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, I have, I have, I've heard, and I think
this has been reported and media insider in the Herald.
It looks like they might be looking to take some
of that funding from RNZ and putting it put it
into a contestable fund of some sort, maybe an engine
on their style fund for some of the private media
companies to do other stuff with. I'm not sure exactly
the details of that. But but yes, I have actually
(01:53):
heard that, and so I wouldn't say that if that
if there is a funding cut, I wouldn't say that
it would be because of what happened.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
No, No, And that's the thing, right, I mean, and
this is where labor is really drawing a very long bow,
because it's already kind of public. Well, we already had
heard these rumors, it's already going to happen. So when
Winston said, it was more like he accidentally lets something
out of the bag rather than he was threatening them
with the funding cut.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, precisely. And the way that his words were this morning,
I sort of I felt that he was you could
read them in a certain way that he was saying,
this is why this is happening. Rub Yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
How do we feel about this expensive road north?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Well? Look, I have been on the existing road. I'm
not I'm not an Ortander. I live in Wellington, but
and I have to say it's it's a it's not
a great not a great road. The first part is
that it's so I can see a statement, right, Yeah,
whenever whenever we do a story about this road, everyone
everyone loves reading about it. People can't get enough of
(02:49):
this road. It is certainly a very expensive road, I think.
You know, we've heard figures are up to ten billion dollars,
so that that might be a bit of a bit
of a problem. You can sort of see some people
in the South Island looking enviously up at Northland thinking, hey,
you know, ten billion dollars of paper on roads down south.
But but I don't I have to say, I don't
regrudge Northland as Northland as that road. That is a
(03:11):
pretty that is a pretty rough stretch of stay highway.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Listen, Thomas, I do not get upset anymore about the
Marti Party not turning up with things like the Privileged Committee, right,
because should we not just accept that these people are
the whole the whole point of their party is to
kind of push back against rules. Here they have an
opportunity to do exactly that they're going to do it,
aren't they.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, they do seem to operate in a very sort
of TikTok universe, you know, I sort of I sometimes
read a lot of what they do, you know, that
they're thinking about how this look on TikTok, how this
look on social media, rather than actually engaging in good
faith look that they make some arguments around Tea Kang
are in the House and changing the rules of the
(03:52):
House to be more accommodating. Parliament has an obligation to
hear those objections. But but they're not going to hear
them if the Marty Party aren't actually in the room
to make those comments. And so yeah, I would say,
and i'd later thinks they should shot up to their
likely coalition partner. So I think I think it probably
would be fear for them to show up. It's pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
What's the punishment if they don't show up?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well, that they can they The Privileges Committee has very
broad powers. They can they can issue fines, they can
issue punishments of of I think in the in the
in the past that they could actually issues jail to terms,
which I don't think is on the table this time run,
but a long time ago they could do that. I
think they can actually issue fines, doc pay contind with
the House.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It is a bit of a wet bus stack and
you saw it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So But Thomas, isn't this actually exposing the ridiculousness of
these rules, Like it's a convention that people actually behave
themselves properly in parliament. There's no actual real punishment if
you don't.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, I mean that is that is that is the real,
the real dilemma at the heart of this, which is
that you know, Parliament can only function if one hundred
and twenty MP's agree that they're all going to act
up some of the time. But here's the line, and
if you cross the line, then you know, there's an
acceptance that you sort of stand withdraw and apologize and
(05:08):
come back into you know, what's permitted. If one party
does regularly behave in a way that's very disruptive and
not within those rules, then that is going to be
a really big problem. So they all need to the
multi party everyone else needs to sort it out because
it won't you know, it won't function if they can't.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah. True. Hey, thank you very much. As always, Thomas,
It's Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editor. For more from
Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks. It'd
be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political lediters of us Hey, Thomas Heather.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hello, when Labor goes.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Crying to Daddy and saying the Prime Minister needs to
come and sort out Winston. They do not for one
second believe the Prime Minister is going to sort out Winston?
Do they?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
No? I don't think so. In fact, I asked, I
asked Chris Hopkins about this today. Actually he had. He
made the point, Look, if the prime minister is that,
you know, as the prime minister, he should treat all
of his his ministers equally when they when they get
things wrong. Obviously that's that's good in theory. But the
allegations obviously that that Christopher Luxen doesn't treat the act
ministers and doesn't treat the New Zealand First ministers as
(00:35):
equally as he does his own National ministers. And Aceptkins said,
you know, look, we always, we basically always did that,
and he was actually referring to the time when he
was Prime minister when of course all the ministers barring
the Green Ones, were Labor ministers because they were a
majority government. And I seem to recall, you know, under
the under the air dourn years in that first term.
It wasn't always the case that the that the New
(00:57):
Zealand First Ministers were treated equally to the labor ministers.
You know, people like Clear Curran metaphytally had the book
thrown at them and and sometimes those New Zealand First ministers,
you know, there's those issues around around the regional flights
and Shane Jones having a bit of a cracket at
the chief executive of the New Zealand at the time.
Christopher Luxen And and and Ja Sinda gave gave the
(01:21):
New Zealand first minister's a pretty long leash back then,
as I recall, so I think there was a weaver
of hypocrisy here totally.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Have you heard the rumor that ran Z is going
to have its funding cut and the budget?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, I have, I have, I've heard, and I think
this has been reported and media insider in the Herald.
It looks like they might be looking to take some
of that funding from RNZ and putting it put it
into a contestable fund of some sort, maybe an engine
on their style fund for some of the private media
companies to do other stuff with. I'm not sure exactly
the details of that. But but yes, I have actually
(01:53):
heard that, and so I wouldn't say that if that
if there is a funding cut, I wouldn't say that
it would be because of what happened.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
No, No, And that's the thing, right, I mean, and
this is where labor is really drawing a very long bow,
because it's already kind of public. Well, we already had
heard these rumors, it's already going to happen. So when
Winston said, it was more like he accidentally lets something
out of the bag rather than he was threatening them
with the funding cut.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, precisely. And the way that his words were this morning,
I sort of I felt that he was you could
read them in a certain way that he was saying,
this is why this is happening. Rub Yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
How do we feel about this expensive road north?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Well? Look, I have been on the existing road. I'm
not I'm not an Ortander. I live in Wellington, but
and I have to say it's it's a it's not
a great not a great road. The first part is
that it's so I can see a statement, right, Yeah,
whenever whenever we do a story about this road, everyone
everyone loves reading about it. People can't get enough of
(02:49):
this road. It is certainly a very expensive road, I think.
You know, we've heard figures are up to ten billion dollars,
so that that might be a bit of a bit
of a problem. You can sort of see some people
in the South Island looking enviously up at Northland thinking, hey,
you know, ten billion dollars of paper on roads down south.
But but I don't I have to say, I don't
regrudge Northland as Northland as that road. That is a
(03:11):
pretty that is a pretty rough stretch of stay highway.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Listen, Thomas, I do not get upset anymore about the
Marti Party not turning up with things like the Privileged Committee, right,
because should we not just accept that these people are
the whole the whole point of their party is to
kind of push back against rules. Here they have an
opportunity to do exactly that they're going to do it,
aren't they.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, they do seem to operate in a very sort
of TikTok universe, you know, I sort of I sometimes
read a lot of what they do, you know, that
they're thinking about how this look on TikTok, how this
look on social media, rather than actually engaging in good
faith look that they make some arguments around Tea Kang
are in the House and changing the rules of the
(03:52):
House to be more accommodating. Parliament has an obligation to
hear those objections. But but they're not going to hear
them if the Marty Party aren't actually in the room
to make those comments. And so yeah, I would say,
and i'd later thinks they should shot up to their
likely coalition partner. So I think I think it probably
would be fear for them to show up. It's pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
What's the punishment if they don't show up?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well, that they can they The Privileges Committee has very
broad powers. They can they can issue fines, they can
issue punishments of of I think in the in the
in the past that they could actually issues jail to terms,
which I don't think is on the table this time run,
but a long time ago they could do that. I
think they can actually issue fines, doc pay contind with
the House.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It is a bit of a wet bus stack and
you saw it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So But Thomas, isn't this actually exposing the ridiculousness of
these rules, Like it's a convention that people actually behave
themselves properly in parliament. There's no actual real punishment if
you don't.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, I mean that is that is that is the real,
the real dilemma at the heart of this, which is
that you know, Parliament can only function if one hundred
and twenty MP's agree that they're all going to act
up some of the time. But here's the line, and
if you cross the line, then you know, there's an
acceptance that you sort of stand withdraw and apologize and
(05:08):
come back into you know, what's permitted. If one party
does regularly behave in a way that's very disruptive and
not within those rules, then that is going to be
a really big problem. So they all need to the
multi party everyone else needs to sort it out because
it won't you know, it won't function if they can't.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah. True. Hey, thank you very much. As always, Thomas,
It's Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editor. For more from
Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks. It'd
be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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